Time for an Australian Super League

Its time in Australia for our very own version of the Hockey Indian League, why because if we dont do something pretty soon, the sport of hockey will lose any space it had in the market.

We are see the success of the Big Bash League in cricket for both Men and Women, the all new Women's AFL and the brand new Super Netball League in Australia is bound to be a success, so its time more than ever for Australian hockey to develop its own Super League.

The Australian Hockey League has played a part for many years now, but its not a true league, its really just the old State Championships given a fancy name. Now I do know the Hockey Australia are in the process of moving towards a professional league, but I think the speed may well now need to pick up even more.

So I here you say what would my new Super League look like, well here is my proposal-

- To start with I would not use the current 11-a-side Olympic format, but instead use the very successful Ric Charlesworth designed Super 9's format.

- The teams would not be state based but franchised based and I would have 10 franchises in total to start out with, these would be

1. Perth
2. Adelaide
3. Sydney
4. Melbourne
5. Brisbane
6. Hobart
7. Newcastle
8. Auckland
9. Christchurch
10. Geelong

- Each franchise would have a playing list of 24 names, which can include 2 over season imports and must include 3 players 21 and under drawn from the teams local area.

- Each team would play each other in two series of three matches one home and one away, with the final four contesting a best of three finals series 1 v 4 and 2 v 3. These would be based on 1 home game for the lower ranked team and two home games for the higher ranked team.

- The Grand Final would be a best of three series as well with the lower ranked side hosting 1 game and the high ranked side getting two game at home

I think this would be an exciting format and could prove very successful.