From
Inside Football Magazine
Reported by Paul Amy
DEAL DONE: Two AFL execs will join the AFL Victoria board as part of the peace deal brokered over the constitution kerfuffle. While the AFL has backed down from pursuing changes that would have made it the sole voting member of AFL Victoria, it has been granted a bigger say at board level. Two members of its executive team will become directors, filling two of the four vacancies. “It will allow the AFL to gain clearer understandings of the issues facing AFL Victoria while at the same time provide AFL Victoria with a more direct avenue to the AFL for assistance and support,†AFL Victoria chairman Grant O’Riley said. “This win-win resolution came after discussions with Andrew Demetriou, who fully supports the new approach.†O’Riley repeated that he was “amazed†at suggestions the AFL would react to the constitutional rebuff by cutting funding or developing an east coast competition. “We spent months working with the AFL on the second-tier review and that quashed any speculation of an east coast competition. The conclusion from the AFL specifically stated that the VFL in its current form is the best option for Victoria’s second tier.â€
From
Inside Football Magazine
Reported by Phil Cleary
It truly was deja vu at the Coburg ground last Saturday for those who
remember the days when VFL/AFL stars burst on to packed VFA grounds. Ben
Cousins, his face covered in a layer of sun cream that gave him a ghostlike
countenance and his muscles glistening in the bright sun could have been Mel
Gibson in Braveheart if it hadn’t been for the crew cut.
Like Braveheart he brought a tribe of loyal followers. From the goals at the
grandstand end to the ABC commentary box it was standing room only and there
were even clusters of people dotted across the terraces on the usually barren
eastern side of the ground.
Times have changed since that Sunday in 1986 when another famous VFL/AFL player,
the goalkicker Mark Jackson, arrived at Coburg in the Brunswick colours. AFL
football is now prolific across the weekend and the VFL has to fight for
attention. Not so 20 years ago. In the days preceding this match there was a
stream of stories in the media about Jackson’s flight to the VFA. A week
earlier they’d run out of food and beer by half time at the Gillon Oval.
