Changes to Sydney Junior Football for 2014

The following is intended to provide an overview of the competition format as it currently stands.

It is imperative to understand that until final team nominations come in for the 2014 season, an actual competition format can and will not be finalised.

As previously advised, in 2014 the following changes are taking place:

– AFL Sydney Seniors will introduce an Under-19s competition.
– AFL GSJ will extend the Harbour and West competitions  to include Under-17s football.
– Sydney South clubs will move to play Sunday football in all age groups.
– Sydney City will move Under-12s football to Sundays.
– Independent School Football will expand  its footprint in 2014 and continue to play Yr 5/6 , Yr 7/8 and are likely  to introduce a Yr 9/10 program on Saturdays.

With this in mind, AFL NSW/ACT, AFL GSJ and the Sydney Harbour Regional Committee have been working through a competition model that:

– Supports opportunities for growth in all areas.
– Allows for a divsionalised structure that allows players to play at an appropriate level of competition.

From Under-12s up:

– Introduces a conference model that includes Division 1 teams playing teams from across the entire Sydney Harbour region.
– Allows sub regions (Sydney Harbour White and Sydney Harbour Red) to play  localised Division 2-4 competitions when team numbers allow.
– Allows Auskick to Under-11s to play against local sub regional teams South, City, North Shore and North West
– Develops a finals structure that supports the above formats.

Please view the important documents below. It provides a draft snapshot of what the competition may look like in 2014. This will, of course, not be finalised until just prior to the 2014 season kick off. This is simply conceptual at this point in time.

There is a FAQ document that will assist withproviding  further information to pass on to club stakeholders. Thanks to Paul Dawson from Cronulla in creating a large portion of this document.

The new competition format will be tabled at  the next Presidents meeting allowing time to gather feedback from all clubs. An appropriate process for nomination of teams and then subsequent grading of teams will be established. This will be clearly articulated to all clubs following thismeeting.

While all parties appreciate there will be significant change for some clubs, I hope all agree that the philosophy behind these changes are in the best interest of the game and its players.