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Monday should be an interesting night. Here is the article from the Bendigo Advertiser. [b]Twos future on the line 31/07/2008 4:00:00 AM THE Metricon Bendigo Bombers board is expected to determine its position on the future of the club’s fledgling reserves side this Monday night. The Bombers are completing an extensive review of the VFL club, with one of the areas looked at being the reserves side, which has been competing since 2005. A board meeting this Monday night is expected to determine whether the club wants to continue with the reserves or disband the side. However, before any decision is final, the Bombers will present their position to both AFL Victoria and their aligned club, Essendon, for their input. “There will be some key decisions made at our board meeting this Monday night,’’ Bombers acting general manager Peter Lodewijks said yesterday. Lodewijks says there are both pros and cons for keeping the Bombers reserves side beyond this season. “In favour of keeping the reserves is I believe it’s good for the development of the young players,’’ Lodewijks said. “It’s considered to be a step-up from the Bendigo Football League and we have seen those players who have been promoted to our seniors from the reserves slot in quite well. “A good example of that is Dale Young. “He has been playing reserves for most of the season, but came into the seniors against the Northern Bullants a couple of weeks ago and played a really good game and held his spot.’’ One of the obvious cons of the reserves is the on-field performance. Since their inception in 2005 the reserves have played 66 games, but won just 13. The last of those 13 wins came in round 14 last season against the Northern Bullants, meaning the Bombers reserves have lost their past 18 games by an average of 109 points. “Obviously, the win-loss ratio is an issue and one of the questions is, is the reserves side there to win games or not?,’’ Lodewijks said. ”If you look at it from that point of view it’s a con, and if you look at it from a travel perspective, we ask a fair bit from the players in terms of early mornings and late nights.’’ This week is the perfect example of the demands placed on the reserves players. The reserves players will leave Bendigo at 6am this Sunday for their 11.10am game at Frankston, and won’t return back to Bendigo until at least 8pm. “But the players don’t seem to mind a lot about that, which is the interesting part,’’ Lodewijks said. “So that’s something we have to take into consideration as well.’’ The reserves also add annual additional costs for the Bombers. While Lodewijks was unable to give a definitive figure on how much the reserves side costs to run, he said it was about the $80,000 to $90,000 mark per year. “It adds a significant cost to running the club,’’ Lodewijks said. “So you have to weigh up the value of running the reserves, compared to what it would cost without the side. “It’s hard to say exact figures, but it’s around $80,000 to $90,000 once you add in the hidden costs. “It’s very likely this Monday night we will have a preferred decision, which will be presented at some point to AFL Victoria and Essendon hopefully, next week and we will take it from there.’’ [/b]