I disagree with this. Many northern clubs have facilities that they have to share with other sportining clubs. Many of the facilities at these clubs are very run down as well. Look at ourselves and Gardens, our buildings are quite run down. Its only been in recent years clubs like Westies and Easties have had an upgrade.clemence wrote:nearly all the sunday div 1 sides operate as a seperate entity and take the money they earn. And yes they have a great junior setup E&D. Have a look at other council areas away from the north and you will see that most clubs have to share there facilities with community clubs or dont have anything near what is in the northen suburbs.
Clubs can only work with what they have.
As for supporters, there are many people that play in b and c grade saturday sides and then go watch there mates play feds or go shopping with wife, watch local AfL you cant compare clubs as the entire set ups are different.
Sunday league has been around for what 60 odd years. Saturday for only about 22 years. Have a look back to when Sunday league was 20 years old and what where the facilities and clubs like then.
Down south we have to many crap fed clubs and councils that only want to support Aussie rules. Both Leagues currently and previously have had some star players but the money and hence depth is with Sundays but this may change in The future.
I think you will also find that its hard to get money from council in an area which is already flooded with teams. There are something like 12 soccer clubs within Salisbury council alone. They try and spread funding over a range of sports so the pool of money is quite thin for Salisbury Council clubs. I will give credit to the council as they are looking at developing and improving buildings for all sports.
If you look out West, Fulham have a fantastic set up and share their grounds with cricket. They would run seperate books. West Beach have a great surface and good change rooms and they share the area with West Torrens Baseball Club and Lockleys Footy Club. I wouldn't say that its easy to be a Northern club to succeed off the field. In many respects, its a lot harder.
With junior set ups, it can help some clubs but its not the golden goose either. If you used that logic, Tea Tree Gully and Modbury Vista would be bigger than Man City. Having a junior set up has its advantages but most of the clubs who have an E&D side or affliate, run completely seperate books.
Where Sunday clubs will have an advantage is that we don't compete with the Feds. We play on a different day so if someone works on a Saturday, the Sunday competition is the only alternative they have. There is probably more and longer rivarly's between clubs on Sundays and I guess Geography plays a big part in that.
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