Unbelievable!! How did the football community of Australia ever let it get to a point where we let a corporation run every level of the sport? Last time I checked, those bastards didn't own the game itself??? We need a breakaway competition ASAP, let the pricks have their AFL reserves. I don't care if we have to play in a six team competition, it'd be better than this ridiculous lopsided, inequitable joke!
Once again the divide between standalone and alligned clubs grows. I'm not against increasing the recovery period for concussion but it should appy at every level. I could be wrong but this is the first instance I know of where the rules are explicitly different between AFL and standalone clubs.
AJ I sense your frustration, what in particular would you change in order to make it more equitable? For me the most unjustified change was the dumping of the reserves (development league). It showed a total disregard towards the stand alone clubs who wanted to keep the competition as.they believed it to be beneficial in player development. The excuse given that it cost too much to administer is a half truth considering how much the AFL squanders in other ventures.
Opinions vary on the AFLs agenda, some saying that they are trying to rid the competition of stand alone clubs. I don't buy into that as they have shown that they can be sympathetic towards these teams such as dismissing the 6 players under 22 rule, giving stand alones a extra home game, paying for interstate travel, playing stand alone v stand alone clubs twice despite that meaning that stronger opponents would not be played etc.
Would be interesting to hear what changes people would like in order to create a competition that is appreciated by the non AFL clubs.
17 PREMIERSHIPS, 19 X Runners up
THE VFLS MOST SUCCESSFUL CLUB - THE MIGHTY PORT MELBOURNE BOROUGH!
I'M PORT MELBURNE BORN, I'M PORT MELBOURNE BRED, I'LL BE PORT UNTIL I'M DEAD!!!
I think the concussion recovery period should be 21 days across every tier if that's truly the best course of action for player health. I think the exemption for AFL/W players is purely motivated by money and not wanting to have star players out for that long.
I don't see the competition ever becoming more equitable in its current format. AFL clubs, being professional sporting programs, will always be pushing the standard higher and higher, and even the VFL-listed players will benefit from being in that environment even if they're not fully professional. Standalone clubs that are mostly run by volunteers and whose players all work day jobs will not be able to keep up with that.
You'll see a standalone club win the flag occasionally, but for most years the majority of them will be close to the bottom. Maybe a salary cap increase will alleviate some of it but that's little help to clubs that can't pay it.
MegaA......to me there is nothing that can be done to make the competition equitable, other than simply moving the AFL clubs to a reserves competition and sending Southport back to the QAFL. To me, what we have now is the Frankenstein's monster of sport, trying to cater to the wants and needs of 3 very separate groups of clubs, and yet not really satisfying anybody.
I think the AFL have switched direction on what they want to do with it, ever since '96. I think at first they naively thought they could merge it with the AFL reserves and that everything would work out fine. They should have been able to forecast that the AFL environments would become infinitely more professional, and that the VFA clubs would stagnate, but they didn't. Another massive change in that time is that many AFL players retired and then played in the VFA......that is rare these days. Those blokes can make good money playing celebrity games for metro and country clubs, or they go to the media. That leaves us standalones in a horrible position.
All we can do is recruit the young kids that the AFL clubs don't bother drafting, and hope for some blokes who didn't make the grade at an AFL club topping up our lists with a hope of going back to the big show. We have extremely slim hopes of any of us winning a flag now. If Werribee couldn't do it with the quality side they had last year, I can't see it happening. I see Port and Willy have the cheque books out in a big way this season, so let's see how that pans out.
For Frankston, Coburg and Preston, we may as well shut the doors now if this is going to continue - our clubs have zero hope of finals, and will do extremely well just to survive.
Any rule brought in which tips the balance even further in favour of the AFL reserves sides is beyond ridiculous at this point.
Oh, one more thing, yes, completely agree with you MegaA on the development league. It's a catch 22 for us at Frankston because of MPNFL clubs resenting losing their best players only to have them playing seconds in a state league, but it also stops us blooding kids and developing them as part of our systems. To have only one team representing you takes away from the whole sense of "club" too, which hurts the supporter base. I'm pleased we now have two women's teams representing us too, because that club sense can be somewhat restored.
Having two women's teams is good, especially since we're trying to develop a VFLW program someday (although we may be better off staying local if the VFLW goes the way of the men's.) Unfortunately our senior women's team gets very few supporters as it is, so you can bet our development squad will be playing in front of an empty ground most weeks. Hopefully last year's grand final appearance has stirred up some more interest, but for that club sense to return because of a second team I think we need to get more supporters interested in the women's game.
Unbelievable!! How did the football community of Australia ever let it get to a point where we let a corporation run every level of the sport? Last time I checked, those bastards didn't own the game itself??? We need a breakaway competition ASAP, let the pricks have their AFL reserves. I don't care if we have to play in a six team competition, it'd be better than this ridiculous lopsided, inequitable joke!
Once again the divide between standalone and alligned clubs grows. I'm not against increasing the recovery period for concussion but it should appy at every level. I could be wrong but this is the first instance I know of where the rules are explicitly different between AFL and standalone clubs.
AJ I sense your frustration, what in particular would you change in order to make it more equitable? For me the most unjustified change was the dumping of the reserves (development league). It showed a total disregard towards the stand alone clubs who wanted to keep the competition as.they believed it to be beneficial in player development. The excuse given that it cost too much to administer is a half truth considering how much the AFL squanders in other ventures.
Opinions vary on the AFLs agenda, some saying that they are trying to rid the competition of stand alone clubs. I don't buy into that as they have shown that they can be sympathetic towards these teams such as dismissing the 6 players under 22 rule, giving stand alones a extra home game, paying for interstate travel, playing stand alone v stand alone clubs twice despite that meaning that stronger opponents would not be played etc.
Would be interesting to hear what changes people would like in order to create a competition that is appreciated by the non AFL clubs.
17 PREMIERSHIPS, 19 X Runners up
THE VFLS MOST SUCCESSFUL CLUB - THE MIGHTY PORT MELBOURNE BOROUGH!
I'M PORT MELBURNE BORN, I'M PORT MELBOURNE BRED, I'LL BE PORT UNTIL I'M DEAD!!!
I think the concussion recovery period should be 21 days across every tier if that's truly the best course of action for player health. I think the exemption for AFL/W players is purely motivated by money and not wanting to have star players out for that long.
I don't see the competition ever becoming more equitable in its current format. AFL clubs, being professional sporting programs, will always be pushing the standard higher and higher, and even the VFL-listed players will benefit from being in that environment even if they're not fully professional. Standalone clubs that are mostly run by volunteers and whose players all work day jobs will not be able to keep up with that.
You'll see a standalone club win the flag occasionally, but for most years the majority of them will be close to the bottom. Maybe a salary cap increase will alleviate some of it but that's little help to clubs that can't pay it.
MegaA......to me there is nothing that can be done to make the competition equitable, other than simply moving the AFL clubs to a reserves competition and sending Southport back to the QAFL. To me, what we have now is the Frankenstein's monster of sport, trying to cater to the wants and needs of 3 very separate groups of clubs, and yet not really satisfying anybody.
I think the AFL have switched direction on what they want to do with it, ever since '96. I think at first they naively thought they could merge it with the AFL reserves and that everything would work out fine. They should have been able to forecast that the AFL environments would become infinitely more professional, and that the VFA clubs would stagnate, but they didn't. Another massive change in that time is that many AFL players retired and then played in the VFA......that is rare these days. Those blokes can make good money playing celebrity games for metro and country clubs, or they go to the media. That leaves us standalones in a horrible position.
All we can do is recruit the young kids that the AFL clubs don't bother drafting, and hope for some blokes who didn't make the grade at an AFL club topping up our lists with a hope of going back to the big show. We have extremely slim hopes of any of us winning a flag now. If Werribee couldn't do it with the quality side they had last year, I can't see it happening. I see Port and Willy have the cheque books out in a big way this season, so let's see how that pans out.
For Frankston, Coburg and Preston, we may as well shut the doors now if this is going to continue - our clubs have zero hope of finals, and will do extremely well just to survive.
Any rule brought in which tips the balance even further in favour of the AFL reserves sides is beyond ridiculous at this point.
Oh, one more thing, yes, completely agree with you MegaA on the development league. It's a catch 22 for us at Frankston because of MPNFL clubs resenting losing their best players only to have them playing seconds in a state league, but it also stops us blooding kids and developing them as part of our systems. To have only one team representing you takes away from the whole sense of "club" too, which hurts the supporter base. I'm pleased we now have two women's teams representing us too, because that club sense can be somewhat restored.
Having two women's teams is good, especially since we're trying to develop a VFLW program someday (although we may be better off staying local if the VFLW goes the way of the men's.) Unfortunately our senior women's team gets very few supporters as it is, so you can bet our development squad will be playing in front of an empty ground most weeks. Hopefully last year's grand final appearance has stirred up some more interest, but for that club sense to return because of a second team I think we need to get more supporters interested in the women's game.