Interleague

[skelly12]

I would like to know everybodies thoughts on a preseason interleague competition similar to crickets GCL..

I propose that each league (except for the west gippy which are obviously to strong) ie mid gippy, east gippy, north gippy and alberton put together an interleague team to play the other leagues over 3 weeks with finals to be played in the following weeks. As a junior I used to love playing interleague footy and this would be another oppurtunity to re instill interleague footy into the region

[bigpapagman]

you could include the ellinbank league.

we would all love to see the guns in each league band together & dominate a side, but sadly, it may be a thing of the past.

[skelly12]

don't see any real reason why it should be a thing of the past though....its just that nobody can be bothered organising such a competition!

[bigpapagman]

true, and players may not want to play for free either.

trust me, there are people like that out there.

[skelly12]

its country football ffs, what have any country footballers done to deserve being paid, all it does is wreck competitions. This is the case in the east gippy where bairnsdale has the funding to pay all of its players and willingly does, providing an unfair playing field for the rest of the teams in the comp, as a result they are dominant

[bigpapagman]

our league is shocking.

standard of football gets better each year, but the money keeps flowing.......

Wonthaggi do the same thing in the Alberton League, they are that far financially ahead of any other team, leagal action has been taken to get them kicked out!

[skelly12]

safe to say its a blight on country football, however back to the topic at hand interleague needs to be reinstated

[bigpapagman]

oh for sure, i know everyone on this forum would love to see some edfl interleague.

[Saint]

I think the best way to run interleague these days is to make it age restricted, perhaps with 2 or 3 players each team allowed over the age limit, like the Olympic soccer.

This way they're less likely to get injured, probably still have more of an attachment to their home town (league) and are not likely to be the higher level paid players.

(I think this could also work for the AFL, if it's good enough for international soccer with multi million dollar players, it should be good enough for here.)

[bigpapagman]

that would be an excellent idea, except it still isnt true interleague.

[Saint]

Well, what is TRUE interleague?

If it's trying to determine which league is better than another, then simply picking 22 players to represent each league doesn't solve the problem either.

Apart from the arguments about unavailable or injured players, some leagues have a lot more depth than others. The top 2 or three players from each side might be good and put together a good 22, but doesn't mean the whole league is represented by those players. Particularly a lot of sides in Ellinbank have a depth problem, I'm not sure about the other leagues.

The Under 23 would still be representative of the league, showcase better players in the league and give these young guys a chance to showcase themselves.

A fairer(but stupid) way to do it, would be to put every senior player from each team in a hat and pick each team at random. Would eliminate depth problems and injured/unavailable problems.

[bigpapagman]

it should be the best "side," not the best players. If the player is suited to the position, then its fine. Dont pick someone like Mumford & play him in a forward pocket.

pick the best forward pocket.

SELECT AND PLAY THE BEST PLAYERS POSSIBLE FOR EACH POSITION.