Remainder of season 2021 fixtures released
The fixtures for the close of season 2021, including the double header weekends have been released. The consultation and co-design process that led to the new competition framework and the close for season 2021 was a bottom-up process and clubs have been heavily involved. Clubs advised that they needed as much time as possible in between seasons and requested that season 2021 be shortened to allow time to prepare teams into 2022 age groups.
Basketball South Australia acknowledges that this is not an ideal situation and that some members and teams will be impacted. Those involved in the consultation process ensured that our member families were at the forefront of discussions as many of those involved in this process are also parents, coaches, administrators and officials.
The double header weekends of 17 September and 8 October are the weekends where State Champs would have been played and these dates were made available earlier in the year, however Basketball SA acknowledges the impact on families where all players will now have two games on those weekends. Consideration was also given to referee availability as our officials already had these weekends blocked out for State Champs. A top 8 final series is another strategy that recognises the impacts that some teams will experience because of these changes.
One of the drivers for change to the competition framework was the ability to better accommodate children who play multiple sports, and we believe the new framework will enable this in 2022 and beyond along with more flexibility to manage the unpredictable COVID-19 environment.
More detail around the double header weekends is below:
17 – 19 September
- Each team has a game in their regular Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning fixtures.
- SANFL Grand Finals are being played on Sunday 19th September for U15 – U17’s
- corresponding age groups are scheduled to play their 2nd game on either Saturday night or Sunday morning where possible
- some DL U16 & U18 games have been scheduled later so that U10 & U12 age groups could finish earlier
- No games have been scheduled on Saturday afternoon so as not to impact club domestic programs
- Some ML games have been scheduled for Saturday night, in line with scheduling that would have occurred for State Champs
8 – 10 October
- Each team has a game in their regular Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning fixtures.
- St Clair is not available on Saturday, so some Saturday morning games are scheduled at Port Adelaide or Wayville, resulting in later game times for Saturday morning divisions.
- Most ML games are scheduled for Saturday night to reduce the number of games required to be played on Sunday.
- Travel requirements of teams has been considered as much as possible.
Basketball SA apologises for any inconvenience, these changes do have the best interests of basketball at their core and were developed by basketball representatives with a passion and love for the game who want nothing more than to see the sport grow.
Thank you to our members who have contacted us directly with your feedback and questions, your time and energy is recognised and appreciated.