I've heard similar things re adjs. It seems it's a real struggle to get adjs this year, and there seems to have been some strange allocations of stronger adjs to weaker year groups as well.
There's no results up on the website yet. We can't tell a lot from one round anyway, but hopefully we'll see a results sheet as the competition goes on.
That's not good at all - even if there is a shortage of adj's they should prioritise putting the stronger adj's in Senior A debates. Assuming that's the situation in ISDA, I can only imagine how much worse it is in another competitions like Eastside and FED that are happening at the moment.
Does anyone have predictions for this year?
My predictions are:
Grammar: Should be winning ISDA and GPS this year - half of their incredibly strong First Grade from last year remains. Presuming the people who made state squad from there last year make it in again, their roster should be strong with Jack Glass, Jack Story and Toby Mok (3 state squad members). They have a traditionally strong team and I expect to see them winning quite a bit this season. Especially given their stunning record last year, pretty sure they topped the GPS table (as predicted).
Sydney Girls: Bit of a wild card, they had no state representatives/squad members last year which was unusual given that they usually boast one state member each year. However, their Year 11 team won in Eastside last year and won Karl Cramp (The PDC Year 11 trophy) - so they might be a particularly strong bunch coming in this year. I expect them to win Eastside and Hume Barbour this year.
But, Sydney Boys could be particularly strong contenders this year for both those titles considering they have a state squad member that's been in the squad since Year 10 (Tim Hanna) who could possibly be a State Team member/reserve this year and they have Archie Wolifson who represented in GPS 2nds last year. But they are coming off a disappointing streak in recent years - we'll see if SBHS can start winning more premierships this year.
I don't know much about FED or predictions for Archdale as I am not in the loop for those competitions.
Looking forward to a brilliant season - and hopefully NSW can get back to smashing Nationals this year!
DebatingNerd signing off