CCF Draws

[truesoccer]

Further to my previous post on a seperate topic I would like to add a commendation for the bloke who does the CCF draws.  I am normally a rather severe critic of the CCF but this chap deserves a lot of praise. Elsewhere on this forum there is some criticism that all the draws are not out. I know from my own club experience that this is not the fault of the CCF or particularly of the person who does the draws for them and all of us. All clubs like to hold off team nominations and gradings as long as possible. From my perspective, one who has been around for possibly too many years, we are going back to the days when this chap was a Director and we got the opportunity to have changes made, Maybe it is his fault after all.
Seriously though from what I have been able to ascertain he does the job,  which at this time of the season involves often up to nearly 24 hours a day, for a mere pittance  compared with the wages of others at CCF. In saying this I do not say they are overpaid but if what I believe is true this bloke is way underpaid.
As stated in my previous post, there are over 11,000 games in a season. Every change requested by a club, and my club is no exception, can involve restructure of one of the overall Friday, Sunday or 3 Saturday basic draws. Our clubs fixtures officer was talking to him today about the wet weather. It seems he had been working on the problem of the wet weather all yesterday and then most of the night just to put alternate plans in place to cover all contingencies if grounds went out. All in all despite several ground closures today only around 12 games will have to be made up. He organised transfers of games so that this total was not many time higher.  We have received an email tonight stating that despite some ground closures only one game will be lost tomorrow. All those who have been on this section of the forum worrying about the draw and whether they would play this weekend should be thanking this person who makes everything possible. He may not be perfect and makes mistakes but we do get to play a s often as possible.
For once, whilst we may not agree with the policies of the CCF as a whole, may we give some credit, where credit is due, to one of their staff and to theCCF for having the initiative to have such a person in charge of the draws.

 

[truesoccer]

Further to the above, and whilst i have a 1/4 hour before I have to leave for work, I would suggest CCF Directors get their priorities right. It is apparent that your efforts to get 10 team competitions going is not a full goer. Some drastic scores on the web after today's games prove that. If we need 6 or 8 team competiions to make things level on the park for kids playing then so shouild it be, as you as directors as are supposedly there for the good of football. Surely you should be there for the 12,000 odd local players and not just to sit up there looking after Pluim park for the 200 odd rep players. We all deserve an equal go from you.
Off to work. Will see if anything changes in the next month when opefully I get off my latest extended shift. Go my 35's and my club whilst I am away. Good luck to the rest of you. More than that I hope my fixtures officer surveves without me.
I know, and the rest of you need not say it,she will get on better.

 

[WELL INFORMED]

Well said true soccer, I am a fixtures officer of a large club and had thought about posting a comment on this very subject but had not had time because of the wet weather and the problems it has caused. Unfortunately most of the people that post derogatory comments in regards to the draws have no idea what it takes to organise the CCF competition, and most of them are only players, or parents of players and don't really contribute to the running of the game at any level, be it club or CCF.What they care about is their own team and/or competition and thats it.
The major problem with the draws or the fact that we don't have draws yet, is that clubs have withdrawn teams and wanted to change grades at the very last minute, I don't know why they allow it but I suppose if it was your kid in the wrong grade and, going to get hammered all year then you would probably want it to happen.To compound the problem there is no software available (so all you bright sparks on the forum here is an opportunity) that can produce a full draw (e.g allocate fields/ times) so whilst the draw can be computer generated the allocation of grounds/times has to be done manually.
If all the people who "think they know what is going on" and in  reality , "don't have a clue about what is going on", continue to shoot the volunteers, and I call the bloke who does the draws a volunteer  because he does it for virtually a pittance ,then we will be paying a hell of a lot more money to play this game. To be honest I don't think we would find anyone with any sanity to take on the job  for the amount he gets paid.

 

[offtheball]

I haven't heard any criticism of Kevin re the draws. He does a fantastic job.  Totally underpaid. Can't imagine the stress he must go through when there is a downpour late in the week.

My criticism is of CCF who refuse to click a button and place his draw on the web site for everyone to see. (Even if it was week to week)

Whilst on praising underpaid officials Marty from CC Refs does a fantastic job. At least we can see who is playing who on the refs site.

 

[WELL INFORMED]

offtheball, I know you are no way criticising Kevin as you and I both know what he does to get the games happening, particularly in wet weather. But I do know that he reads the forum on occasions and takes any comments re lack of draws/information on the CCF website, as a personal insult as "draws" are his responsibility. I also believe the CCF website is not that user friendly for him to input them. I know you are going to say that we have other paid staff in the CCF office that could do this, but I don't  I think Kevin is that keen for the draws to go on the site when there are so many late changes (even without the wet weather there were still changes coming thru as late as thurday night) I woulf prefer clubs keep up to date weekly draws on their own website.

 

[mariners4ever]

well said truesoccer, if you think that the 10 team comp is too many teams, have a think about the 18's comp which 13 teams which will be split into 2 comps later on in the season, i personally play in this comp, and i think its stupid, we have teams who have been in the A's for the past few years (kanwal just to mention one) and we have teams who should'nt of even been in the 17B's last year (no offence, kariong and terrigal).

 

[masmariner]

Sorry this whole post is a copout we know this bloke does a great job but more resources should be made available to get the draw done earlier and to make sure it is correct, other associations don't have these issues. Plenty of wages are paid in the CCF Office put some more towards getting the draw sorted.
In other associaitons complete draws are issued early and are changed from time to time you make sure you have the latest draw and then everyone is happy.
In regard to draw changes why do CCF allow this they rule with an Ironfist in other areas.  ?
In one of my kids draws I checked this morning we are playing two teams not in our comp one is the next round. ? - Who checked this. ? Conversly two teams who are in this comp are not mentioned in the draw where did they play yesterday and where do they play in the future. ?

 

[luvsoccer]

masmariner.
As a helper with my club I know clubs are issued with suggested gradings based on last years results prior to them nominating their teams. At time of team nomination they are allowed to request regrade. A committee comprising a CCF and 4 club peple then go though the nomionations to decide who is in which grade. One person from my club has sat on this committee and says it is pure hell trying to decide which team should be in what grade. He sates hat normally you get 3 or 4 who want to be "A's" and the rest want to be "C", "D" or "E". All have excuses which seem well justified. Players have gone to reps, other clubs etc. Despite all this the main problem on the Coast is that the CCF, or at least those that matter, want to get as any on the park playing soccer as possible. As a consequence we have many more grades and comps than many Sydney associations with in most cases a lot less grounds to paly the games on. friends of mine in Sydney had to play well outside their area and had to get special approval to do so because their local association had capped number of players and teams in clubs. His local ASSN can issue draws la lot earlier because of this capping. I believe if this would happen on the coast we woud lose at least a third of our players and teams.
Once the draft draws after another week of hassling with clubs about grades a draft draw is issued to the clubs for checking. You state you child is playing a team next weel who is not in the draw. I would suggest that you contact your fixtures officer to see what the situation is. I know by helping mine there have been a number of additional team additions as well as withdrawals since intitial draws were done.
Please ascertain the facts before criticing. I still do not agree with a lot the CCF do  but do believe Kevin and the club fixtures officers do a great job to get tyour child on the park considering restrictions imposed by the CCF Board.

 

[hightower]

Having known Kevin for at least 25 years and being involved with fixtures at a club level- I can attest to the hours and amount of work that he puts in to get the players on the park each and every weekend. Prior to the completion of Round one- yesterday, there were at least 8 amendments to the draw due to grounds being unplayable.

The crux of the matter here is not Kevin, CCF or clubs fixtures officers- it is the local Councils. I can speak with some authority on this matter having been both club president and chairman of football.

Our code dwarfs the other 3 codes combined and yet we always get short changed with field allocations. Also when council leaves the decision to open the field to the clubs- but puts a rider on it that they will be fined and/or lose usage rights if they are damaged is ridiculous beyond belief. Either delegate the duty to the clubs and live with the decision- or get a ranger out of bed and inspect the field at 5.30 am like I have on numerous occasions- fat chance. I personally have closed our home ground many a time when it may have been alright to play on in fear of this threat.

This organisation obtains thousands of dollars in fees for hiring of the ground, but cant even fix holes in the carpark. It took 10 years of pleading to get them to remove the posts on our main field in the off-season- what do you think people head for to kick around a ball in summer? So much for ground management strategies!! We asked them to fill a depression on our field and the job they did-  and they did a real job on it was so deficient that a decent ref would have deemed the field unplayable, it was dangerous - thank god we were rained out on the weekend.

We need a united front to throw our political weight around and put some pressure on the councilors- we are all ratepayers and VOTERS.

Once again well done Kevin- keep up the great work