Should Peel Thunder remain in the WAFL?

[gytre]

One major area of division in West Australian football circles has been new club Peel Thunder. Peel was admitted into the WAFL back in 1997 as the WA Football Commision deemed it beneficial to try to exploit Perth's rapidly growing satellite city of Mandurah (in the Peel district) and expand the WAFL to nine teams. Unfortunately though, the Peel club has struggled badly on the field in all three levels since being admitted to the WAFL.

Detractors of Peel argue that the admission of a ninth team to the WAFL has thinned out the talent pool and led to a decline in standard of the WAFL, whilst also creating an annoying bye in the WAFL each week. They argue that Peel has added nothing to the WAFL except a weak also-ran team with no history or tradition. They argue that many of the young players from the Peel region haven't stayed on to help build a strong foundation for the new club, and that Peel's turnover of players has been very considerable. All the other WAFL teams want Peel out of the league, but the WA Football Commission granted them a new playing licence last year.

Advocates of Peel staying in the WAFL argue that the region is the fastest growing in Western Australia and will in the longer term be important for the Aussie Rules code in WA. They point out that compared to the other WAFL clubs Peel has very good crowd support and sponsorship, and that the local Mandurah community has really gotten behind the team. With Mandurah being such a long way from Subiaco Oval, Peel Thunder gives football fans in the Mandurah region the opportunity to see a high standard of football in their own backyard.

Should Peel stay in the WAFL?

[stmookeyj]

Without them, we may not have ever heard of Farren Ray or Daniel Wells. Their Colts from what I have read are amongst the best in the league as well. Remember, clubs cannot be judged on their senor strenght alone.

[gytre]

Originally posted by stmookeyj
Without them, we may not have ever heard of Farren Ray or Daniel Wells. Their Colts from what I have read are amongst the best in the league as well. Remember, clubs cannot be judged on their senor strenght alone.
Agreed. I'm still very ambivalent on the issue myself and hence am yet to vote in my own poll.

Peel has so far struggled in all levels of football, but at the moment their colts team is unbeaten after 3 rounds.

[Docker_Brat]

They have a scary future if allowed to live. Check the position of their Colts on the ladder and their percentage.

[Port1978]

Nah, get rid or them.......get rid of teh bloody bye

[Goldenblue]

The WAFL is a sub-standard competition nowadays and I can see the reason why the Commission decided to include Peel into the WAFL.

The team since it's admission into the WAFL has been nothing short of tragic, but Mandurah is growing fast and the WAFL needs to expand for its very own survival. The talent pool is thin and the bye is annoying, but it's just a pity that the money or the interest is not with the WAFL nowadays.

If the money was there in gate takings as well as sponsership dollars, I would have included Kalgoorlie as well as Bunbury into the competition to make it a viable state competition. Bunbury, Geraldton and Kalgoorlie have a lot of tradition as well as having produced many fine footballers in their pasts and both towns I feel would be beneficial for the dollars. The WAFL needs to expand as some clubs are close to each other in proximity, ie: Claremont and Subiaco and the 2 Fremantle sides. You can't allow those clubs to close as they have a wealth of history behind them.

The WAFL needs a huge overall and that does not mean clubs changing jumpers or the change from the name "WAFL". Some pointless ideas and experiments in the past have been decided by the commission and I feel they really tweak with things rather than have a real vision.

The WAFL needs a blueprint or a vision that will enable the competition to survive. If not the WAFL will be dead in 50 years.

[Docker_Brat]

Naturally Peel have been tragic, how the hell can they hold on to players when they were only able to offer short term contracts. Peel were being given a licence to play only on a yearly basis.

Try building a business if your rivals are able to vote to shut you down at any time.

[gytre]

Originally posted by Goldenblue
The WAFL is a sub-standard competition nowadays and I can see the reason why the Commission decided to include Peel into the WAFL.
If the competition is "sub-standard", how will having one extra team improve this?

The team since it's admission into the WAFL has been nothing short of tragic, but Mandurah is growing fast and the WAFL needs to expand for its very own survival. The talent pool is thin and the bye is annoying, but it's just a pity that the money or the interest is not with the WAFL nowadays.
I totally agree that it's a pity. I can live with the bye. The bye is not the end of the world.

If the money was there in gate takings as well as sponsership dollars, I would have included Kalgoorlie as well as Bunbury into the competition to make it a viable state competition. Bunbury, Geraldton and Kalgoorlie have a lot of tradition as well as having produced many fine footballers in their pasts and both towns I feel would be beneficial for the dollars.
That would merely thin out the talent pool even further.

The WAFL needs to expand as some clubs are close to each other in proximity, ie: Claremont and Subiaco and the 2 Fremantle sides.
I will suggest that that's fairly irrelevant. All the clubs have recruiting zones, and their suporter bases stem from old loyalties people have

You can't allow those clubs to close as they have a wealth of history behind them.
Agreed. New or merged metropolitan clubs certainly wouldn't generate more interest than what there is now, which adds weight to my last point.

The WAFL needs a blueprint or a vision that will enable the competition to survive. If not the WAFL will be dead in 50 years.
Nah, fifty years is just too long a time span. You can't plan that far ahead with the WAFL. I don't think the WAFL will end, but it's a shell of it's former self, so in some ways it's already ended. It barely even feeds the AFL any more, as most draftees are taken out of the colts competition. I can't see any great benefit of having Peel in the league. Your argument about Peel boosting the financial coffers is doubtful as it also means that the yearly WAFC dividend is being split nine ways instead of eight.

Thanks for your comments, Goldenblue.

[wellsy]

Well i am now accustomed to Peel being in the competition. They have been an absolute nightmare if only for their colts side which is reasonably good but their reserves and league are shambles. Although i must admit their league side is looking a bit better then in previous years. Im happy for them to be in the competition but they must improve and improve quickly. Aim to at least win 6 games or so this year, if they dont... well... i dont know what to say if they dont. :eek:

I guess if we were to kick them out of the competition we would of done it a couple of seasons ago but they are still here and i hope they can at least get a bit better.

[royaldave]

Quite simply it was a shockingly ill-thought move to let them into the WAFL in the first place.

I'm not against them being there, but throwing them into the pool to sink or swim, when the pool itself was running out of water was absolute stupidity.

The last thing the original 8 clubs needed while they were learning to cope with the AFL was a bye put into the fixtures.

And of course Peel have not been helped out by the situation of never knowing how long they'll be in for.

In saying that I don't think the solution is to simply throw them out.

With many of the clubs having struggled financially at one time or another its feasible we could throw Peel out and then suddenly see another club forced to close doors for financial reasons.

And in all fairness to Peel just when they look like they're getting somewhere the rug is pulled out from under them. In particular 2002 was a promising season for them but with the threat of extinction hanging over them all the best players were picked off by other clubs which led them back to square 1 in 2003.

Ideally we'd move to a 10 team league, but I don't think the talent pool exists for that - and indeed unless the WAFC/WAFL is prepared to properly look after and promote the league the 10th side would ultimately be an even worse shambles than Peel.

[Goldenblue]

Originally posted by gytre
If the competition is "sub-standard", how will having one extra team improve this?

It won't improve it, but they had to expand due to the population moving into the area.

Originally posted by gytre
That would merely thin out the talent pool even further.[/B]

Trues, but my thoughts were there if the money was there, I still think it would be ideal to set up a real State League. Abolish the zones and create a draft similar to the AFL

50 years may also be a long time span, but the VFL got to a point where it had to sink or swim, and I feel the WAFL is getting to that stage, regardless of what monies they are boosted with by the WAFC.

[Rob]

Originally posted by Goldenblue
Trues, but my thoughts were there if the money was there, I still think it would be ideal to set up a real State League. Abolish the zones and create a draft similar to the AFL.

You're joking aren't you? You'd have a 16 year old kid playing colts and living in Rockingham get drafted by West Perth and force him to go up to Joondalup 4 times a week just to play?

The WAFL is a community based competition, which is exactly why Peel belong in the league. They give a chance to a bundle of players in the Rockingham/Mandurah area that wouldn't otherwise get to play WAFL. Give them enough time and a competent management team and they'll be a good side.
Give them one year licences and hand an axe over their heads and any decent player is going to nick off and they're going to get slaughtered, like any other team you put in that position.