After the first nine rounds of NTFL action, Southern Districts Football Club is in the box seat to claim the $7,000 first prize in the Statewide Super NTFL Club of the Year Award.
Coinciding with Statewide Super presenting the Chamber of Commerce: Business at Sunset event at the Michael Long Learning and Leadership Centre this evening, it was revealed that the Crocs (140 points) are narrowly leading Waratah (133.5 points) in the race for first place in the Big Club division.
Coming third is Nightcliff (119.5 points), who is bolstered by an impressive result in the ‘strong club’ criteria.
In the Small Club division of the Award, it is very tight at the top with PINT (96.5 points) narrowly ahead of Jabiru (90.5 points) and Banks (90 points).
After collecting and analysing the data from the first few rounds of the season, it became clear to AFLNT officials that having all 14 NTFL clubs competing in the one Club of the Year competition was not going to give each club the same opportunity to win.
As such, the AFLNT Executive decided to split the Club of the Year into two divisions – Big Club and Small Club.
Clubs were then allocated to a division based on their size and the number of teams they manage across the different NTFL grades.
In season 2018/19 the average number of teams across the 14 clubs is 7.5 teams per club.
Subsequently, any club with eight or more teams was put into the Big Club division, and any clubs with seven or fewer teams were put into the Small Club division for the Statewide Super Club of the Year Award.
Each division has its own prize money and the total prize pool for season 2018/19 is $15,500.
The criteria for both Big Club and Small Club is the same but was updated so that each instance of negative behaviour (e.g. yellow/red card, suspension) would result in a subtraction of 10 points.
Each club is also now awarded an automatic 7.5 points in the ‘strong club’ criteria for each team it has entered across the different NTFL grades and divisions.
A full breakdown of the criteria is available online here:
https://www.aflnt.com.au/competitionsntfl/ntfl-club-of-the-year-award
Manager of Community Football Rosanna De Santis said she was pleased with the decision to split the Award into two divisions and tweak the criteria, and believed that come season’s end the best clubs would prevail.
“We wanted to give every club a fair go at winning but to change the criteria alone wasn’t going to work because in one instance having more teams meant the bigger clubs kept coming out on top but adding heftier penalties for acts of bad behaviour meant the risk was greater for those clubs and so the smaller clubs benefited.
“To split the clubs into the two divisions means each club is now competing against similar sized clubs that face comparable challenges and opportunities.
“The results to date show that it’s not all just about winning on the field, but about balancing that with good behaviour whether you’re a player or administrator, and with having strong club governance and plans in place,” she said.
Statewide Super Club of the Year
Leaderboards as of Monday 3 December 2018
Big Club Division
1st prize - $7,000
2nd prize - $3,000
3rd prize - $2,000
| Club | on field performance | strong club | behaviour | running total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Districts | 45 | 115 | - 20 | 140 |
| Waratah | 51 | 132.5 | - 50 | 133.5 |
| Nightcliff | 57 | 162.5 | - 100 | 119.5 |
| St Mary's | 56 | 120 | - 60 | 116 |
| Palmerston | 43 | 135 | - 80 | 98 |
| Darwin Buffaloes | 58 | 87.5 | - 70 | 75.5 |
| Wanderers | 35 | 105 | - 70 | 70 |
Small Club Division
1st prize - $2,000
2nd prize - $1,000
3rd prize - $500
| Club | on field performance | strong club | behaviour | running total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PINT | 64 | 52.5 | - 20 | 96.5 |
| Jabiru | 83 | 7.5 | 0 | 90.5 |
| Banks | 50 | 50 | - 10 | 90 |
| Tiwi Bombers | 30 | 57.5 | 0 | 87.5 |
| Big River Hawks | 29 | 45 | - 10 | 64 |
| Tracy Village | 14 | 62.5 | - 20 | 56.5 |
| University Rats | 71 | 17.5 | - 50 | 38.5 |
