Sunbury avoided relegation last year surely they can not avoid it 2 years in a row.

One of the criticisms of the BigV in recent years has been, as someone out it here recently, their "socialist" decision making.

Corio Bay's admission to the league was criticised because they put a brand new club, with few junior or development credentials, straight into Championship, thereby encouraging them to recruit heavily in order to be successful.

I have heard similar criticisms of decisions made regarding McKinnon's womens team last year.

What is the basis for Werribee's promotion? They did ok in D1 last year, but did not make the GF. Have their juniors been performing well? Is their YL team stacked with up and comers who will help them be successful, or will Werribee need to recruit heavily to be competitive?

#385928

I agree they need to decide on what sort of competition they want to be.

As for State Champs entry, I would hope they take more into account than just D1 performance, such as:

- strength of juniors
- long term coaching / pathway within the club
- likelihood of returning College players
- capacity to support both genders in the program
- quality of venue and amenities

The real concern with BigV is that it is now recognised officially as Victoria's State championship for seniors, which for a long time it wasn't - they need to restore its prestige and you don't do that just throwing teams all over the place.

Big V is getting to be all about participation, just like the VJBL. Lets get everyone playing and forget about quality. All you need to do is look at the level of competition in the juniors and realize that quality means bugger all to BV. Many of the clubs exist just to pay for the Big V teams they have. One in the south east in particular come to mind. That club has a pathetic history of below average results and is currently putting parents in charge of teams because they cant attract real coaches. Thats club only continues to pay for the deep pockets required by the champ men and womens teams.

Outside of a few larger associations (Waverley,Ringwood,Eltham,Hume City) it is pretty much a small club league.

The only reason those big few associations aren't in SEABL more relates to a lack of support from there junior programs not wanting to put up the dollars required to play at the next level as i'm sure all could field competitive teams with the right imports and club support.

Tiger: Hume city has been covered enough here and is a total basket case for one reason only, Ringwood is a "big club" but a tiny Association and is relegated to the EQ ranks when it comes to juniors. They will really struggle to field decent Big V teams without going well outside the club for the vast majority of players. Waverley would have the $$ for SEABL but not the mentality with to many cooks and only one chef. Eltham is not far in front of Ringwood and has crap courts just one step up from Venom. None of those you mentioned could ever look at SEABL especially in the next few years. Its more likely that some SEABL clubs come back to Big V as $$ become harder to come by.

Anon. How many of these (Championship) clubs have genuine "ABA" class venues? Also, do you have an insight into how well Werribee's juniors have been going?

I agree with you all in terms of the facilities as Hume are really the only club that is up to SEABL leavel in that respect.

My main point was size of the association as i think you'll find of the Big V clubs Eltham/Waverley/Hume could put together SEABL level teams and compete if they leveraged off the junior bases they all have.

Eltham & Hume really are the two i see as assocaitions with the size to make the step but without knowing the internal politics or the club ethos it is hard to judge why there junior commitees are pushing them to get there seniors more organised and throw more cash at making it happen!

^ wrong hume city state champ mean have at least 3 club juniors in their team... better than most other teams

men*

careful #386097,

don't start counting juniors, you'll get the waverley and corio bay people all steamed up again....

lol someones a bit angry aye

Which is my point #386147, the league seem to be making decisions based on "we have a team, good enough to play this level, can we play now..." rather than "ok, you have named a team, but what do you look like in 3 years time, where are your next generation coming from etc."

"re: Big V SCM 2013
Warrandyte was knocked back on that reason from SCM 2013.

Southern Peninsula & McKinnon will be the next SCM teams in 2014."


Once again lowering the standard of the competition.

Seems that Mildura came up from D2 last season and then won D1 this season should they then go to championship? I personally dont think they should as i think they got lucky this season.