I agree with tahboy, you can't discount depth in a club. Having competition for spots is an advantage because, as tahboy says, you can make tactical replacements and also if the 2s are doing well, the 1s know they've got to play well or get dropped.
I'm not suggesting "depth" isn't important, that's obviously a given.
What I'm saying is that Uni will have the most players of 1st grade standard available on Grand Final day , & that reflects their depth.
It doesn't follow that the team coming second in the second grade competition has the next highest number of potential first graders .
If you watch the second grade games & are familiar with the players in each team , you would know , I believe , that that proposition is not necessarily the case , & is not a good indication of the number of genuine back up first graders.
The team that plays in the Grand Final , against , who I believe will be Uni , could well be one of the teams who are not near the top in 2nds , but who do have several
quality players in their second grade team , reflecting the idiosyncrasies of the 2nd grade competition.
i.e I'm talking about Grand Final teams.