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Saw this article in the Bendigo Advertiser..
[quote]BENDIGO Bank Bombers' chairman Warren Driscoll says he would derive greater satisfaction from seeing the club's younger players realise their AFL dreams than the team winning a VFL premiership.
"It would be great to win a premiership, but to me, that's not the priority of the club," Driscoll said at the Bombers' pre-season training camp last weekend.
"Our existence is to have a Bendigo presence and to give the young guys who mature a little later than the others the opportunity to go further in their football.
"This may sound silly, but rather than a premiership, I would love see three or four guys picked up in the national or rookie draft," he said.
"That would give me more pleasure than a Bendigo premiership, because that's what it's all about." Nathan Lovett-Murray, who joined the Bombers last year as part of the Essendon Football Club's Michael Long Scholarship Program, was picked up by the Dons in last year's rookie draft.
Lovett-Murray also spent time in the All Seasons Bendigo Football League with Kangaroo Flat after being unable to cement a mid-season spot in the Bombers line-up.
"The kid was running around for Kangaroo Flat, which never won a game, but he played last Friday night for Essendon in the ultimate competition," Driscoll said.
"That's what we're after." Driscoll said he was also concerned with some perceptions that the Bombers were ruining Bendigo football.
"Less than 40 players from the TAC Cup got drafted last year; a lot of players miss out, so what do they do?" Bendigo is a prime opportunity for these kids to stay in the region, but if they don't play with us, they go back to the BFL and who wins out of that - Bendigo football," he said.
Driscoll believes the Bombers are worth $350,000 a year to Bendigo's economy.
"Essendon pays us money, which is basically all spent in Bendigo," Driscoll said.
"We have a hell of a lot of people come to Bendigo to watch the VFL, Essendon spends quite a lot of money on accommodation for players, and those players spend money in Bendigo," he said.
"But if the community doesn't get behind us, the community will lose out."[/quote]
I am interested in seeing what people thought, are VFL clubs now measuring their success by premierships or by players going around in the AFL?
I go to the footy in the hope of seeing Port have a successful season, finishing it off with a flag. Players that get picked up to play at AFL level are just a bonus...
