First Interview

Our first interview will be with the SANFL CEO, Darren Chandler.

What would you like asked? (Polite answers only, please )

We don't start until 1st Feb, but treat this as a trial run and post away.

From the outside it would appear that the same side/s participate in and win the SANFL Premiership each season. The SANFL Salary Cap the competition to equalise the competition. Why is it not working? Why are the same sides bottom and the same sides top year in and year out?

Thanks Ben.

We'll ask Darren that.

Can you also ask why the SANFL does not require that the highest-ranked SANFL sides invited to take part in the FOXTEL Cup actually compete, rather than our lower-ranked teams taking part, thereby running the risk that their potentially poor showing reflects poorly on the league as a whole.

townbike wrote:Can you also ask why the SANFL does not require that the highest-ranked SANFL sides invited to take part in the FOXTEL Cup actually compete, rather than our lower-ranked teams taking part, thereby running the risk that their potentially poor showing reflects poorly on the league as a whole.

I'm guessing that the answer would be because the SANFL can't compel any club to compete in the FOXTEL Cup.

Flag No.9 wrote:I'm guessing that the answer would be because the SANFL can't compel any club to compete in the FOXTEL Cup.

Yes, most probably. But perhaps they should!

Perhaps ask Darren whether or not country games were considered for the 2012 fixture and the reason(s) why there weren't any scheduled this year?

I’d urge everyone, including Darren, to take a good hard look at the latest club boundaries on the SANFL website.

http://www.sanfl.com.au/the_sanfl/sanfl_club_boundaries/

If your club is being adversely affected by any boundary changes you should let your club and the league know. Personally, from a purely Norwood point of view, I left ‘concerned’ light years ago and right now I’m about 3 galaxies beyond livid! Apologies for the following whinge, but if I don’t release some toxic critical mass I just might go thermonuclear.

Imagine if Norwood were given part of Port Road along with Alberton and Cheltenham, or Brighton Road with Glenelg’s Brighton and Hove, or heaven forbid, maybe Unley Road including Malvern, Parkside, Fullarton and Eastwood? Well you don’t get much more Norwood than ‘The Parade’, but unbelievably the entire top section of The Parade to Norton Summit Road and beyond has all been handed to another club. This is along with a huge number of other dyed in the wool, Red n Blue suburbs and Hill’s towns east of Penfolds Road, St. Bernards Road and Stradbroke Road, that used to be utterly Norwood since 1878! It’s manifestly intolerable !

I mean no disrespect to Sturt or ANY other club. Boundaries need to take account of demographics, but ‘fair suck of the sav’ gentlemen, do it correctly. How the hell can a league claiming to be all for ‘Grass Roots Tribal Football’ simply destroy a club’s traditional heartland? You need to magnify the SANFL zone map to really see the damage being done, but get this, the Norwood Morialta High School (Junior campus), the Magill Primary School, Rostrevor College and what used to be Campbelltown High School are now all in the ‘Sturt Zone’. That’s as well as all the small Hill’s hamlets to the east that supplied any number of Norwood champions.

I never thought we’d live to see the day when ANYTHING north of Greenhill Road, to the east of Fullarton Road, would be stripped from it’s rightful owner. Darren, by all means keep Sturt healthy, but stop stealing Norwood heartland to do it! There MUST be a fairer way. Perhaps Sturt could get a better share of the country areas that currently seem to favour 1 or 2 successful clubs. Remember figures do lie. Just guessing here, but let’s say 50 out of 100 country boys might play football where regional choice is limited, whereas competition for all the other sports and interests in city areas may mean that only 10 or 20 out of 100 city boys actually take up Aussie Rules.

Of course it gets even worse for The Legs as one looks north. Of the pitifully small geographical area Norwood has left in the metropolitan zone, a good 60-70% is now north of Greenwith/Yatala Vale! That’s slap bang in the middle of Central District supporter territory. Oh yeah, Norwood can really look forward to getting stupendous returns from areas bordering Elizabeth East, Munno Para and Evanston. Does anyone seriously think that people from Little Para Reservoir, to nearly, but not including Gawler, will now suddenly be singing ‘It’s A Grand Old Flag’??? Sorry Darren, this isn’t so much a joke as a flamin’ nightmare. Bulldog people should be pretty upset too !

I notice the map of Country Zones isn’t on the SANFL site. A few weeks ago I rang league headquarters and insisted on a copy. After a few software problems we managed to open the attachment and found out why it’s not made readily available for general perusal on the League’s website. It’s a hotch-potch of weirdness including 2 strange islands for West Adelaide and another unacceptable rip-off for Norwood. Honestly, after all the events of the 1990’s it’s a pity that loyalty seems to remain a one-way street.

So, with all the above as preamble, my questions for Mr. Chandler and the S.A.N.F.L. are……….

1) When would you like to see The Norwood Football Club finally squeezed out of existence ?
2) Who will share what’s left of the ‘Norwood Zone’ when they fold ?
3) Which other clubs have been similarly earmarked for destruction and why ?
4) Why is the very fabric of our wonderful suburban game being literally torn apart at the seams ?
And finally ……
5) You might as well save on the advertising Darren, ‘Our Tribes ARE Calling’, but will The League start listening before it’s too late ?


Not a happy vegemite,
Sabre.

p.s. It wasn’t easy, but did anyone notice how I managed to avoid mentioning SANFL subservience towards the un-AFL.
Oh..….whoops.

Ben W wrote:From the outside it would appear that the same side/s participate in and win the SANFL Premiership each season. The SANFL Salary Cap the competition to equalise the competition. Why is it not working? Why are the same sides bottom and the same sides top year in and year out?

Very good question.

Good questions.

The interview is today and we'll put the results up very early next week.

Sabre, we also have some knowledge of the boundaries situation, so I'll definitely follow that up with Darren.

We have to say that Darren was happy to be interviewed for the site, alhough obviously the SANFL doesn't endorse any particular forum.

Cheers Admin, good luck.

Well, Admin had an enjoyable hour with Darren Chandler and we appreciate his time.

We'll put the interview into an article and we hope to post it here very early after the weekend.

Interesting interview and it addresses the questions you've asked and many more.

ahl wrote:

Sabre wrote:

1) When would you like to see The Norwood Football Club finally squeezed out of existence ?
As soon as possible

2) Who will share what’s left of the ‘Norwood Zone’ when they fold ?
Sturt and north

3) Which other clubs have been similarly earmarked for destruction and why ?
Just norwood

4) Why is the very fabric of our wonderful suburban game being literally torn apart at the seams ?
Money...

Hello, a throwback to safooty.

ahl wrote:Sorry hawky, but I've never been on sa footy do I don't know what you are referring to. While sabres concerns about zoning may or may not be valid, the questions he wanted asked where quite comical in my opinion and replied in the same way.

Fair enough, no problem. It's just that the thing I hope we avoid in this forum are cheap shots, something that safooty thrives upon. I don't mind someone saying my team is crap, or they should drop out of the competition, etc, just so long as they give a reason why. That way you can start a debate, which is what forums should be about, IMHO.

Cheers, and thanks for your response.

ahl wrote:Sorry hawky, but I've never been on sa footy do I don't know what you are referring to. While sabres concerns about zoning may or may not be valid, the questions he wanted asked where quite comical in my opinion and replied in the same way.

Likely story

The answers to those questions regarding boundaries will allways be the same, when they are next up for review we will look at it.

We've found out that the Boundaries Commission process is under way and it includes an analysis of participation rates and then the official census figures.

Each club makes detailed submissions relating to their boundaries and what they think is fair to them.

We'll keep you posted.

Yep, your right footy follower. Those questions are serious and MUST be answered by the people running football in sa. The hidden agenda to destroy the norwood football club needs to be made public.

Perhaps Richard Earle will read this forum and it will be front page of the Advertiser Monday morning.

ahl wrote:Sorry hawky, but I've never been on sa footy do I don't know what you are referring to.

I was referring to this part of your post. You must think we all came down in the last shower.

I do apologise ff, you must be right. After all how would I know what web sites I do or don't visit??

It didn't take much thinking. You told us yourself.

You might want to be a bit more discrete next time.

And how did I do that exactly?

OK, let's keep this thread for discussion about our first interview.

ahl, FOOTYfollower is obviously correct, but don't worry about it.

Sorry for the delay in publishing the Darren Chandler interview.

Work pressures, etc have intervened, but we're hoping it won't be too much longer.