My mental health isn't on trial here, thank you very much! That's scheduled for next Thursday. Local councils love having their area on the national stage, and if they can be seen spruiking their region on anything with a few eyeballs, they'll happily part with a few million in rate payer funds.

A proper pyramid league system would see investment from local and state governments into making those types of changes, as a team like Heidelberg moved up the system and attracted larger crowds.

I'm quietly confident this years competition will be bigger and better for the reasons you've touched on. Sydney United being in a much better place, Rockdale/Sutherland, Adelaide City, Queensland Lions all possible inclusions in place of Spirit, MetroStars, and Moreton City. I can see some...

Interesting! A proper league H&A format would more or less result in this - concentration of local talent into that state's NSD club(s). If the SA clubs go ahead with this, it will be good to see how far they progress.