Club first or school first? Football’s great debate rages on
Strong school football creates strong club football, experts say, as the age old debate between the two rears its head again ahead of the SATIS Aussie Rules grand final.
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STRONG school football creates strong club football, experts say, as the age old debate between the two rears its head again ahead of the Sport Association of Tasmanian Independent Schools grand final.
Both North Launceston and Clarence will be missing several key players for the TSL clash at Richmond as Guilford Young College takes on St Patricks College to be crowned the state’s best school football team.
Key forward Jackson Callow and half back Oliver Sanders will be unavailable for the visitors, while the Roos will be missing young guns Oliver Davis, Sam Banks, Noah Holmes and Darcey Gardner, earning the wrath of Clarence coach Jeromey Webberley.
But Guilford Young principal Craig Deayton hit back at the Roos coach ahead of the grand final clash.
“I think school football for boys and girls means strong football full stop — it means strong TSL football and therefore strong Tasmanian football,” Deayton said.
“It is not necessarily about the very high profile kids that play, it is about the kids they draw into play.
“For the first time we’ve got a second XVIII in the boys as well and a lot of girls who want to play.”
On Thursday, Webberley questioned whether playing school football instead of senior AFL football was hurting the chances of prospective draft selections, such as Callow and Davis.
“A kid like Ollie Davis, if he has 30 possessions and kicks two goals against North Launceston and Brad Cox-Goodyer, Josh Ponting and Taylor Whitford, is he a chance to get drafted? Absolutely,” Webberley said.
“If he gets 30 and kicks two in school footy, is he still a chance to get drafted? I don’t know.”
But Deayton said it was the first time all season that a school game had clashed with club football and then only for the grand final.
“School football is the tide that lifts all boats,” Deayton said.
“If we have it strong here then we can negotiate with clubs around matches and making sure we get into conflict or denude their opportunities and we’ve done that pretty well.
“This is the only Saturday game we’ve got then I think it is in everyone’s interests in the long term.
“We have been speaking with all the clubs.
“These games are huge for them and they want all their players on the park, we get that.
“We’ve just got to find a way to negotiate so these two things can happen at the same time.”
The SATIS grand final will be streamed live at the Mercury’s web page, themercury.com.au, starting from 11.30am.
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