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NorthPort
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AFL Canberra unveils plans to tackle Victoria
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http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=sport&subclass=local&c... [quote] AFL Canberra unveils plans to tackle Victoria SWalsh Monday, 4 July 2005 AFL Canberra has launched a bold bid for a one-off interstate match against the Victorian Football League in the ACT next year as the centrepiece of a revamped representative calender. League leaders are confident the VFL will accept an offer to play the ACT despite the territory suffering its fourth successive loss to an AFL Queensland representative team at the Gabba on Saturday night. The match is planned as a stand-alone game at Manuka Oval. It is part of a restructure to give AFL Canberra's elite players two representative games a season. The overhaul is based on a three-year cycle, with an alternating home-or-away game against the VFL every third year as the main attraction. The ACT's bid is built on filling a representative gap for the VFL, which plays a tri-series against SA and WA that gives them a bye every three years. The ACT would play one-off games against the Sydney AFL the following two years. An existing annual clash with AFL Queensland would remain a permanent fixture. The league also planned to retain a team for Australian Country Championships, which it won for the first time in WA last year. However, the team would instead be designed for under-21 players to showcase the league's young talent, rather than a senior squad, at the carnival, held every two years. The VFL is a Melbourne-based competition a tier below the AFL. It includes teams such as Port Melbourne and Box Hill, which are essentially reserve-grade clubs for AFL teams. AFL Canberra general manager Anthony Dignan said the VFL plan aimed to offer ACT footballers a chance to represent the territory against the best possible opposition. "Representative football is a great promotion for the league and we play Queensland as part of that, but we need to look higher," Dignan said. "I think it's everyone's dream to play against the Big V and hopefully it will keep and attract players here knowing that every three years we play the VFL. They don't have to go elsewhere to play a state game of that standard." But AFL Queensland, which handed the ACT a 38-point loss at the Gabba on Saturday, again looms as a stumbling block. Queensland league bosses have also showed interest in a match against the VFL in its "off" season, despite holding a similar deal with the Western Australian Football League. The ACT hopes to promote the match on its own merit rather than as a curtain-raiser to a Kangaroos AFL match. [/quote]
Edited by: admin on 28/12/2008 - 02:16