CCF grades 8 & 9

[neverwozza]

My eldest son plays in an under 8's side in the southern division of central coast.

They are what is called semi graded as per the CCF guidelines:

Non Comp Football (Grades 8 & 9) is the next progression of our great sport after mini Football. Team sizes are increased in grade 8 from those in grade 7 giving the opportunity to mix and match players as a prelude to grading which takes place in grade 9. This increase in team size allows a perfect opportunity in Grade 8 to mix and match players to have players of equal ability play together. This is necessary to enhance their development and maintain their enthusiasm for the game. Grade 9 players are to be graded as much as possible. Players of equal ability should in the case of Grade 8 be placed into and in the case of Grade 9 be graded into teams, not teams graded to average out the mixed ability of players. The rules are further expanded as a prelude to playing full rules when in competition from Grade 10 up.

Our club has three grades as does a lot of the other teams in our division and they have all been a lot more ruthless than expected in the grading. Unfortunately CCF has decided to lump all our kids into the same division so there are going to be lots of mismatches during the year. We played a club's 1 side recently and beat them 7 nil. We played their 2nd side and beat them 13 nil and we only had 7 players. We are up against their 3rd side next game so its anyones guess what the score is going to be. Our 3rd side has had two double digit floggings in their only two games so they are at the other end of the spectrum. It just seems ridiculous to me that instructions are to grade but then they put all the teams in the same comp.

From what I understand a few of the clubs have put in letters of complaint but the draw is going to stand as is. Anyway that is my rant for the day!!

 

[afan]

and they call this development! the most overused word in our football today!  This type of grading /draw is not good for any1, as no child wants to be flogged week in week out and the teams doing the flogging, are learning NOTHING

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

That sounds pretty ridiculous.

SSG's are supposed to be about more touches - but how the hell are you supposed to touch the ball when you can't get it off the over team?

There's no challenge for anybody in a one sided match.

Not surprising that CCF don't give a stuff what the clubs think about the situation though. 

 

[WELL INFORMED]

That sounds pretty ridiculous.

SSG's are supposed to be about more touches - but how the hell are you supposed to touch the ball when you can't get it off the over team?

There's no challenge for anybody in a one sided match.

Not surprising that CCF don't give a stuff what the clubs think about the situation though. 

Another comment on the forum from a person who has NO IDEA what they are talking about. SSG is Under 5/6/7's only , nothing to do with 8/9's.
Despite all that ,where there are major problems in  kids getting flogged every week something needs to be done.
Now  can any one out there tell me how in the hell you can grade Under 8 teams into even competitions without any  past results history??? The CCF have enough  problems in getting teams into reasonably even competitions and they have results from at least 18 games the previous season.
Lots of smart people out there giving ideas on how things should be done BUT I will bet a lot of money they don't even help out at club level let alone the CCF.

Want to try and do something about it then at least get in and volunteer a bit of time at your own club instead of whinging on the forum!!!!

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Oh for christsake, can't we talk about anything on here without flaming each other anymore?

SSG is up to under 13, under the FFA.
www.footballaustralia.com.au/site/_content/document/00000576-source.pdf


While CCF have, I believe (not too certain on that), only implemented SSGs in 5-7, THIS SEASON, The same basic ideas and philosophy behind it still apply to all those young kids games anyway.  Sure, there's a few more differences, but nothing hugely significant in these grades.  Maybe a couple of rule changes, and losing an on-field player or two (the shifted role of the referee is also something, but whether that translates into anything real remains to be seen).

Even before the concept of SSG's came in, the idea of 'more touches' was always important to the smaller field games of U/5-9 (U/10 in some areas).

How do you grade U/8?  It's actually not that hard, you have a grading day, your best X number of players, into one team. A grade.  Next best, B grade.  Next best - but wait, they're quite a lot worse - fine, C grade.

Sure, not perfect, but the grading process for older kids is also quite problematic.

Oh, and just for your reference, I was a coach of U/8 and U/9 for two years, and I also ran a cadet referee course for the benefit of that club.  So yeah, I have stuck my hand up to volunteer.

And that's got nothing on the various roles I've adopted with the referee's association to try and fix the problems I saw there.

Maybe you should try and find out a thing or two before you try and bag me out, hmm?

Well-Informed, you call yourself?

 

[priorpeter]

Bam.

 

[neverwozza]

Its all good now - swampy has fixed the draw.

Well Informed - you need to think before you post next time. I understand that u8's would be difficult to grade as there is no past history but playing a clubs 1st side against there own 2nd and 3rd side is a recipe for disaster. My post wasn't about the fact that the draw had been stuffed up (i'm glad its not my job) - I was under the impression it wasn't going to be fixed. Also you shouldn't assume that people don't help out at their local clubs because they have a whinge. I coach two junior sides, had a $500+ rego fee this year and also sponsored 3 sides so I give up time & money to help out. I was under the assumption that most people on this forum do get more involved than just playing anyway.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Good to see CCF taking action on the situation - no doubt this has created a helluva lot of extra work for those concerned (which is why CCF are generally so reluctant for any sort of regrading once the season starts)

 

[neverwozza]

From what I understand they have only done the draw for the next two weeks and see how the results pan out before finalising it. They have gone above and beyond IMO.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

That would be a smart thing to do...I think they used to do that with all grades (though I could be wrong)

 

[Swampy]

OK, my turn

I have spent the best part of the last two weeks getting results sent to me for all 8 South and 8 Central teams from the beginning of the season.  yes I know we dont keep scores, but lets face it we still do?  Most teams have sent me their results and from this I have "moved" Grade 8s into more equal divisions.  I have also asked Kev Gibbs not to send a complete draw out as there may be more changes coming, depending on wether there is any more large score differences.  Like I said in the emails to the coachs, being beaten or beating other teams by large numbers of goals is not good for the players, not good for the coaches and not good for the parents.  It is also not good for the sport.  Whilst most coaches are interested mainly in their own team (natural) I have to focus on all the teams, please remember we have some very experienced coaches in grade 8 who have done amazing things with their players, and we have dad or mum coaches who put their hand up at their club to coach their childs team with little or no experience.  There is a huge difference between the two and both deserve a fair shake.  Remember though, these are 8's, smiles on faces is the most important result. Anyway, hopefully the grade 8 problem is fixed and now onto the next problem.  By the way, there was mention back a bit about regrading teams after the season has started.  This is a huge amount of work, and yes since I became Director of Competitions I have addressed and regraded several junior and senior teams who were obiously in the wrong grade and were being totalled on the field.  I am still watching a couple of teams at the moment.  Kev has been a rock with his extra help and work to accomplish this and as we both say, we are here to get the kids on the park, big and little ones.

Greg Swampy Marsh - Direction of Competitions

 

[neverwozza]

Once again thanks Swampy. Our kids went from winning all their games by mostly double digit scores to getting beaten 2-1 by SEU on the weekend after the regrade. The difference in standard was amazing with our kids having little time or space to make decisions as opposed to previous weeks where they could basically do as they pleased. It should help their development a great deal playing against harder opposition and I can't speak for all the kids but I know my son enjoys the closer games more than the one sided ones.

 

[truesoccer]

sons or daughters than what is best for their children. Would it not be better to spread the players between teams within their clubs so if these coasch are so great they can teach a lot more players, not just their children.