What's wrong with South

Over many many years this club hasn't had a period of sustained small success , let alone success. .I thought when they appointed Fuller for 5 years it was the wrong move ,not necessarily because of Fuller but 5 years seemed to me they wanted to give a message of stability due to their constant revolving door with coaches. My perception was they were desperate to do that at maybe the expense of the right coach.

South have lost some very good players over the last 2 -3 years and will lose some again this year .

They cannnot attract juniors and over a long time had a fertile area to work with but did not work it. They don't have a winning culture and I question whether they have a football culture to be honest. You walk into some clubs and you feel it ,even walking to local Ovals yyou feel it. Not at South.

I'd like to see them take a strong stand and market themselves as a commmunity club, a club fighting and a club for the South.A bit of us against them attitude.

The honest truth is most people like South.That is a problem .

What do you think ?

As I posted in another thread, I feel had South gone to Noarlunga pre-Crows, they'd be better placed than they are right now.

However, apart from an armful of tradition, my club was a basket case in 2009 and not as well set up financially as South are at present, so you never know what can happen.

I'm only on the outer looking in, so I really can't comment on any problems they may have. Certainly they've been unlucky with interstate recruits. They've picked up some very good ones, but for whatever reason they haven't stuck around.

Adelaide Hawk wrote:As I posted in another thread, I feel had South gone to Noarlunga pre-Crows, they'd be better placed than they are right now.

However, apart from an armful of tradition, my club was a basket case in 2009 and not as well set up financially as South are at present, so you never know what can happen.

I'm only on the outer looking in, so I really can't comment on any problems they may have. Certainly they've been unlucky with interstate recruits. They've picked up some very good ones, but for whatever reason they haven't stuck around.

They don't stick around because of the club culture. They have had an issue for 70 years at least. Kerley was the only person who absolutely turned the club around, although Haydn Bunton and John Reid also had some success in changing the culture but eventually they got worn down by the factions. It seems as though there are more factions than supporters down there. Ron Fuller certainly tried to sweep out the bad influences and seemed to be on the right track, but the problems at the start of the year with a player's indiscretions off the field seem to have set things back again. It is only hearsay but the belief is that the player sacked "took the rap" for another player with history and this caused angst amongst the players this year.

People often talk about South having this great fertile area to work within for recruiting, go have a look at the positions on the SFL Ladder of their feeder clubs, outside of Morphett Vale the rest are largely at the bottom and struggling. Would be great to have the likes of Henley or Goodwood to feed into the club and I do think this is a huge issue as the difference between the likes of Goodwood and Hackham is quite large, replicate that several times over and it becomes obvious that it is a problem for the club in general.

Over the years they have had a very good area to pick from. That cannot be denied, there role is to identify talent not look where a SFL club is positionned on the ladder. They should have looked at the talented kids , forget about clubs and their positions .

How many talented kids are playing at Hackham?

No idea , I wouldn't assume too many. It's not the point. The facts are South have not worked there area well , I mean even they have admitted that. It's a historical issue as I said, over many many years.

How many played at Morphett Vale, Reynella, Noarlunga,Port Noarlunga , Happy Valley over the years. Not just now but over the last 20 years and more.

Reynella and Happy Valley are both in Glenelgs Zone, Many people assume that the SFL clubs are all allocated to the SAFC but this is not true, Sturt, Glenelg and West Adelaide also have SFL clubs in their footprint.

South have done better out of Morphett Vale players than anyone else over the years, no coincidence they are one of the successful clubs in the SFL?

I heard a story that Neil Kerley was fed up with committee members stopping training to ask players if they'd sold their raffle tickets, etc. Then there was the time Don Scott was sacked when he was trying to change the way they played.

Both times they went for good blokes who loved a beer to replace them, Peter Darley and Rick Davies. I think that has a fair amount to do with why South haven't tasted success since 1964.

Adelaide Hawk wrote:I heard a story that Neil Kerley was fed up with committee members stopping training to ask players if they'd sold their raffle tickets, etc. Then there was the time Don Scott was sacked when he was trying to change the way they played.
Both times they went for good blokes who loved a beer to replace them, Peter Darley and Rick Davies. I think that has a fair amount to do with why South haven't tasted success since 1964.

Ummmm....a little bit more than that with Don Scott....ummmm....where do I start?? *cough cough*

Will tell you one day

Adelaide Hawk wrote:I heard a story that Neil Kerley was fed up with committee members stopping training to ask players if they'd sold their raffle tickets, etc. Then there was the time Don Scott was sacked when he was trying to change the way they played.

Both times they went for good blokes who loved a beer to replace them, Peter Darley and Rick Davies. I think that has a fair amount to do with why South haven't tasted success since 1964.

Those stories are from an awefully long time ago.
I cannot imagine the ghosts of beer swillers past, stretch even as far back as the Jumbo.

Most clubs have undergone a Glasnost and Perestroika 2 or 3 times over in that time.

The other thing I have read contrary to some of this thread is that South have the least number of football playing 15 year olds in their zone of any club.

Maybe that has something to do with it.

Thought about this question for along time and really dont have an answer to it.

Where do you start? I think one of the problems at present with South is the players that are playing in the GSFL (Great Southern) and SFL (Southern Leaugue) are getting BIG coin to play down there. You get about $50 a reserve game for South and train about 5 to 6 days a week. Down in the Southern And Great Southern League you can earn excess of $1000 a game ...I know of certain players getting $1500 or more a game!! They sometimes only have to train one day a week or sometimes just turn up on Saturday......Im not saying this just happens at South but it is hurting the club. I remember growing up I would of "paid" South to put a jumper on me!!!! This was in the late 1980's!! I loved them. Unfortunately , kids these days dont really have that same passion. I even tried to get a transfer playing under 17's for Glenelg to go to South but they would not take me as they were a top team then. Very hard to get a game.

I still think the oval should have been build in a more residential area. Always liked Bice Oval. Just believe it would be closer to the community in the streets. Bit like Norwood Oval, Unley, Woodville etc... We seem to far away from anything.

I think recruiting has been good but when they come to South something gets in players heads and they either find they dont want to be there. (Could it be the travel to Noarlunga??.....The culture???....The atmosphere of the place?? ) Seriously I dont know.

I think the board has been an ssue for years but this seems to be going better of late. (I dont know the inner workings but just the impression I get) It has been a massive problem in the past of past players "sticking their noses" in when it has not been wanted there. Im sure Ron Fuller would not be a victim to this!!

Personally it has been an extremely difficult journey being a South supporter. My grandparents, uncle (ex property steward) and mother were all South supporters who only saw one premiership (1964). I lost my Mum (2006) Uncle (2011) and my grandfather and grandmother (2010). I am the only surviving South supporter. I go to games alone. Im 38 years old. I just hope for success one day as I know when they win a premiership it will be other then the birth of my daughter , the greatest day of my life!! The reality is....I may never see this day. I cried my eyes out at the 2006 elimination final win against Port. 1 week after my Mum passed away.

I nearly every week. Get laughed at, asked "Why would you bother?", heard all the jokes "You side is pathetic" etc...etc...

I just love my club. They make me sad, happy, depressed, elated....all sorts of emotions. Sometimes I just wish the players, some people in the club had that same passion and vision as I do.

I really want to see a premiership before I die.

I love South so much and each year I just keep the faith and belief....

Someone has to support them don't they

Southee wrote:

Adelaide Hawk wrote:I heard a story that Neil Kerley was fed up with committee members stopping training to ask players if they'd sold their raffle tickets, etc. Then there was the time Don Scott was sacked when he was trying to change the way they played.
Both times they went for good blokes who loved a beer to replace them, Peter Darley and Rick Davies. I think that has a fair amount to do with why South haven't tasted success since 1964.

Ummmm....a little bit more than that with Don Scott....ummmm....where do I start?? *cough cough*

Will tell you one day

I've heard all the Don Scott stories, I had mates who played under him at the time. However, they did tell me Scott was trying to re-model the South style of play, and a lot of people didn't like it .. so he went.

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:Those stories are from an awefully long time ago.

Yes, and South haven't won a flag from an awfully long time ago either.

You should never succumb to those who say "why would you bother" / "side is pathetic" etc.

I would reckon most of them are less passionate or supportive of their own clubs.

It takes a while to build culture and a while to lose it.

All sides are at the mercy of the forces that drive greater return for less effort in other leagues.

This will upset the Gen-y's amongst us, but the reward before achievement mantra is what today's generation live by. But who can blame them? The system driven by my generation keeps feeding them this.

This is where in a system driven from the grass roots up (as it should be), the footy pyramid would have equity in proportion to effort, talent and standard.

But alas, it is a top down managed pyramid, driven by Mr Demetriou's version of footy equity that he cannot see below 3 rungs from the top.

And so we (as in everyone below 3 rungs from the top) all suffer.

Starting to get a long way from Noarlunga now, so I will stop!

Ben W wrote:Reynella and Happy Valley are both in Glenelgs Zone, Many people assume that the SFL clubs are all allocated to the SAFC but this is not true, Sturt, Glenelg and West Adelaide also have SFL clubs in their footprint.

South have done better out of Morphett Vale players than anyone else over the years, no coincidence they are one of the successful clubs in the SFL?

Ben W , You are not reading my posts. I know Happy Valley and Reynella are in Glenelgs zone............now. They weren't always . I am making a point that South have been terrible with their zones over many many years.

Happy Valley (SFL premiers 2012), Reynella and Flagstaff Hill are all in West Adelaides zone. They were in Souths zone but the sanfl gave them to West when South shifted to Noarlunga, go figure...

At the same time as ripping out a number of good juniors from the SAFC and handing them to both Glenelg at West Adelaide in the process.