A Grade Competition Worth the Wait

The long wait is over for A grade teams with round one of the 2011 season kicking off this Saturday.

Collegians’ return to A grade will start off with a bang, with the formidable challenge of opening their season against North Beach at Charles Riley Reserve.

This match pits premier against premier, with both teams holding flags from last season.

North Beach had a strong record at Charles Riley last year, and head into the season as heavy favourites for yet another A grade premiership.

The Tigers were on cruise control for much of last year before storming home to finish the season on top of the ladder and thumping Whitford 18.14(122) to 7.6 (48) in the 2010 grand final.

North Beach secretary-registrar Alan Lewington says the boys will be up to the task of seeking their eight consecutive flag.

“We always go in with the idea that we’ll see what happens,” he said.

“Undoubtedly we’re starting a little bit later than a lot of the other sides, with the view that we won’t be particularly ready for the start of the season, but we’ll be ready for the end of the season.

The two new teams in A grade provide an unpredictable element to the division, in particular Maddington.

“We normally take each team as we come across them, but we do of course have our traditional rivals, Lewington said.

“We haven’t seen the newer teams because they’ve been out of our division but no doubt they’re good competition and it will be very interesting when we get to see them.”

Lewington said club unity is been important in developing and maintaining a club’s success.

“We train our reserves and league together, we’ve got two colts sides and they both train together, unless you’ve got that continuity in training and playing with the same coaches, it makes it very hard to get them to produce their best,” he said.

Last year’s premiership was North Beach’s record seventh straight, and coach Bill Duckworth’s tenth in 12 years at the helm.

One of the opening round’s interesting match ups will take place at Gil Fraser Oval where North Fremantle will face Whitford.

After getting thumped by North Beach in last year’s grand final, Whitford will want to improve on the consistency that has seen them finish with an 11-7 record in both of the last two seasons but falling short in the finals.

Whitford’s lower grade sides got the wood over North Beach last weekend, and they look to be the side to beat this year though they will have to wait until round eight to test themselves against the premiers.

North Fremantle had a season to forget last year, finishing the season in seventh with eight wins.

The Magpies will want to bounce back and regain the form that took them to the top of A grade in 2008 and 2009, and saw them finish the season first and second respectively before ultimately losing both grand finals to North Beach.

A grade gets their first taste of Sunday League footy with the debut of Maddington against Fremantle CBC at Moris Buzacott Reserve.

Maddington were the surprise packet of B grade last year, and will be the unknown to much of A grade this season.

The final two games of the round will see Mt Lawley take on Trinity Aquinas at Hamer Park, and Wesley Curtin and University going head to head at South Oval.