Grading & Prelims: How It works

Week 1: Played only by new teams or teams that have had an extended break. This first game gives us a good starting gauge on a team's ability. These are played at the same time as the Semi Finals from the season before.

Week 2: Played between the new teams, and teams from the previous season that did not make finals. This is an important round as we can now get a better handle on where new teams sit within the competition based on their results with current teams.

At the start of this period, our system will rank all teams in the competition - somewhat of a seeding - based on the first two rounds of grading and the previous season results. More weight is placed on consistency over the season as opposed to finals (example: A team who is undefeated all season, except the Grand Final would likely seed higher than a team who lost 3 games but made it through to the Grand Final and won).

Seedings are not public knowledge and purely for management's benefit.

During the Preliminary Rounds, teams will be matched up closely with seeds around them, to hopefully ensure (but not guarantee) closer results. We are also aiming to place you against teams we believe you will end up in the same division as, due to the games counting toward the two team's ladder results, only if they end up in the same division together.

NOTE: Management may decide to move into Competitions Rounds early, if we feel that we have enough information to grade all teams.

Results during Preliminary Rounds WILL count toward the end of season ladder, if you end up in the same division. So once you move into competition rounds, you may notice some teams have a win-loss recorded and others do not.

Example of Team A Fixture:

• Prelim Round 1: Team A vs. Team B
• Prelim Round 2: Team A vs. Team C
• Prelim Round 3: Team A vs. Team D

After Prelim Rounds:

• Division 1: Team A, Team C, Team D
• Division 2: Team B
• Therefore, Prelim Round ONE will not count for either Team A or Team B as they are in different divisions. Round 2 and 3 will count for Team A.

It means we can match closely seeded teams against each other while still trying to work out grading, and have those games still count toward the season. This ensures a longer more effective grading process, without necessarily playing 5-weeks of grading/prelim to not count for anything.

When fixturing the competition rounds, our system will consider previous games played during Preliminary Rounds when deciding play orders.

We sometimes get some teams who contact us believing they have been placed into the wrong division. Any team on any matter, is always welcome to contact us. It is very rare for us to change a team's division, but we are always open to discuss it.

However, it is important to remember that we need to be fair on all teams, and every division has a bottom team.

We try to be fair to teams across seasons and give teams a go. For example, if you were the bottom team of your division the season before, there is a high chance we will move you down - and any top teams can possibly expect to go up. However, there are no hard rules on this; as team registrations change from season to season - and a Division 1 in Autumn, may look completely different in Spring.

Split divisions is also a major part of what we do at CitySide Sports, when we determine that 4-5 teams are worthy of one division status and another 4-5 lower, rather than play each other every few weeks, we might put the divisions together to name it Division 1 & 2, and then have split finals so more teams have a chance to 'make the big dance!'

This is more commonly seen in Volleyball in general and/or any new competitions. No matter your sport though, most teams want a challenge and a close game. We understand that.

Over 25 years in the industry our Management team have seen the same pattern in most social sporting competitions. A new comp is put on offer. 10 teams sign up for the very first season of it. Not bad.

The top team beats everyone convincingly, the bottom team keeps losing by a lot.

Both teams leave at the end of the season as they want to go find somewhere else (or they move to another night in the competition). 2 new teams then join the competition.

Now because the top and bottom teams left the competition, there are still only 10 teams instead of 12 - and the comp cannot split in to two divisions.

Our Advice: Stick with it, talk to us - see what is coming up the next season, find out from us about our patterns and team numbers, and what we have planned for your competition - before you decide to move.