Doesn't seem to cover parents going off and doing unsolicited recruitment though - isn't that a serious problem?

And perfectly strict zoning isn't really ideal anyway - you'd have families moving and not wanting to change clubs.

Well, the average USA high school competitions are far more serious than anything here in OZ, and they are quite simple, zoned totally according to residential address. Works fine. Families still move to get over this, but fasmilies do that here in OZ for school selection as well.

For local OZ use you can add the caveat that when the parents move , they have the option of remaining with their previous club. And to provide a serious arbitration system to resolve issues where particular families are no longer welcome at a club, where approval for out of zone registration can be given.

The onus is up to the association to create the rules and to enforce the same.


Trouble is the bleeding hearts cry out that " but my little sammy wants to play with his friends" - which begs the question of why little sammy is such a sociopath that they can neither make new friends, nor play the sport well enough not to have to be carried to 'success" by the more skilled 'friends'

. In piss ant OZ associations where they need to combine private school and clubs in the same single competition structure , you find that the private schools actually force the new student to play for the school and to leave the club structure where they learnt to play - mostly the parents don't complain in that situation, as they would prefer little sammy to make new friends amongst the (presumably) socio-economically advantaged school students rather than the public school riff-raff that occupy the club structure.

And as the school always pays its fees on time, the association just bleats 'its up to the parents and the schools'.

The answer is of course to have separate club and school competitions as here in adelaide, and to enforce a zone feeder system for the clubs - but that will never happen

forgot to add, out of zone registration can be allocated by the arbitration process, and a part of the decision making process would be which neighbouring club has the greatest need of the player , not just allow the parents to pick their preferred (presumably stronger) club

zoning is not the only answer. Another answer is managing clearances properly:

a) limit clearances to one inward clearance (from another club) per age group per year
b) no more than 3 clearances across all age groups from any one other club

this limits how much poaching a club can do (ie a state coach cannot just go an recruit 4 of last years U16 state team to come to their club) and restricts damage done to a single club by aggressive poaching.

this is something I never quite understand. here in Australia everybody's worried about his/her player getting 'poached' by other clubs, you'd think if the coach is doing a good enough job that's not going to be a problem.

if you don't treat your kid right then obviously he/she is gonna walk. as a coach myself I've always given my kids the freedom to do what they want and I haven't lost a kid leaving for other clubs. in fact I give them so much freedom that they don't even have to come to training! but he/she will obviously be benched as a consequence. in fact most of them loves training and rarely complains!

a lot of time got to look at 'why' somebody decides to leave.

LA Boy - you are right to question this but its also very simplistic.

If the "why" is because next years state assistant coach is actively doing the recruiting then thats a pretty clear cut "why" and adds a lot of pessure to the kid and the family.

I've seen kids being coached by excellent junior cocahes leaving programs for this reason, or because their mum/dad want them to have a shot at "championship" glory at another club.

I'm no head coach, but we've turned a bottom 4 team into a championship team after taking over in the matter of one season. and you know what? we had over 40 kids trying out for the squad in the following season with all our championship players also opt to come back.

so in regards to people go to better team etc.? I guess it's just comes down to coaching again.

obviously having the state coach/assistant on your squad make things very handy however there are still numerous cases where a kid make the team without biting on that coaches' tail. perhaps new regulation is required that U20s coach can't coach U20 rep team?!?!

oh yeah and this is not to mention our starting PG chose to stay in our program over that of state coach's and he still made the cut on the state team earlier this year.

And Anon478, those smaller associations have been raped by the larger associations in vic for years. Bulleen and Melbourne are historically brilliant at poaching, and in latter days Dandenong seems to have had great success.

Vic is not zoned, but few championships these days are won by smaller associations in Vic. And there is vigorous movement of 'state' quality kids to the larger assocs.

Anon477 - I am interested, where does zoning work and why do you think that it works in those circumstances?