How does your junior clubs pick their players/teams?

So the Junior season is over..but I get lots of feedback from people, mainly parents and coaches on how their season, kid's play, development and enjoyment was ruined by the way the team was allocated/sorted in the first few weeks....or not sorted!

Here's one club praised by many observers in Canberra for getting things right.

But, if you get put in the wrong team,......

too high or too low, play in the wrong grade for your skills or put with a weak team in an intra-club competition then things can go wrong pretty quickly.

And people, Club Administrators, Parents and Players can get pretty upset, angry and defensive not to mention disillusioned, and frustrated.

So which method works best, and is their a better way for your club!

Well, there's always a better way and unless you are involved in the picking process then it is probably hard to understand what the process is.

Most clubs have trials, some use last years coaches assessment, some don't.

But it seems to me with the junior season in Canberra being incredibly short...less than two terms and with many clubs starting academy programmes, short competitions, and trials early in the new year, it shouldn't be too hard to get it a little better.

So given every club has a process and given even the best coaches in the World leave out some of the best on occasions, perhaps it's not the process that is important but the ability to review and review quickly any concerns before and even shortly after the season starts.

One suspects clubs that have trials, announce teams, and then have a one-day carnival will have done a strong job. On top of that a quick appeals process before the carnival would enable most problems to be ironed out.

Seems to me such a system would have a better chance of ensuring a better time is had by all players during the season.

Have you ever played in a team that won 5-0. Fantastic isn't it. But try playing in the team that loses 5-0, every week. Especially in an intra-club competition. It sucks.

Don't take my word for it, ask the kids!

Bad organisation in intra-clubs comps leads to bad experiences.

And what's wrong with changing an intra-club team after two weeks if they are getting flogged.

How does your club do it across Australia? What works, what doesn't?