Re-structuring WA hockey.

So WA hockey is about the face the biggest challenge it has ever had to face in the coming years, when the AIS, and Hockey Australia High Performance program along with all the Hockeyroo's and Kookaburras players leave WA for the East coast when the program moves in 2018-2019.

I do know there are those with WA hockey who believe it wont happen, but these people live in a fictional fantasy world, the fact is for the future of Australian hockey the program must move and its the best thing that could ever happen for both Australian hockey and WA hockey. However WA hockey must re-structure in order for success to happen after this occurs, if they continue to do what they are doing now, they will fade into the background and no longer be able to lay claim to being a power of Australian hockey.

So what am I proposing, well I think the following must occur-

- The Premier 1 (MTL League) as it is current know in WA must be completely re-structure in both Men's and Women's its needs to be reduced from the current 10-12 teams down to 8 teams in each competition, for the first two years then expand to 10 teams in the third year.

- These teams should be set up as Premier 1 clubs only, there would be 4 clubs in the Metro area and 4 country based clubs.

- These would be
1. North Suburban
2. South Suburban
3. West Suburban
4. East Suburban
5. Rockingham/Peel
6. South West Strikers
7. Midwest
8. Goldfields

- All current clubs in the Metro area would be allocated which would look like the following-

1. North Suburban: Joondalup, North Coast Raiders, Whitfords, Hale, Newman, (other Northern suburbs based clubs.)
2. South Suburban: Fremantle, Melville, WASPS, Canning, Southern River, Dale, Curtin Trinity Pirates, (other Southern Suburbs clubs)
3. West Suburban: UWA, Suburban Lions, Westside Wolves, YMCC, (other Western Suburbs clubs)
4. East Suburban: Old Guildford, Eastern Blades, ECU Rangers, Vic Park Panthers, Kalamunda, (other Eastern suburbs clubs)
5. Rockingham/Peel: The current Rockingham Hockey Club and Peel Hockey Rebels would merge to form one club which will cover the Rockingham/Peel Region.
6. South West Strikers would continue as they currently stand.
7. Midwest: this would be a new team based Geraldton.
8. Goldfields: this would be a new team based in Kalgoolie.

- After the first two years, two more clubs will be added these would be-
9. Lower Great Southern.
10. Upper Great Southern.

- All currently Metro clubs would continue they would just never play in the Premier 1 grade anymore, they would instead play in lower grades and act as feeder clubs to the new Premier 1 clubs.

Now this is a bold change and I know there will be the gang of 10 clubs in Perth who think they own the game kicking and screaming about this but reality here, the current structure will not work when you haven't got the Hockeyroo's and Kookaburra and AIS players running around for you and making the current competition strong. Once these players are gone the competition will dramatically weaken.

ITS TIME TO CHANGE.