Source: Geelong Advertiser

GEELONG will get the best indication of whether it is a VFL finals contender this season against Coburg today, according to coach Dale Amos.

The ninth-placed Cats host the seventh-placed Coburg at Skilled Stadium this morning as the curtain raiser to the AFL clash between Geelong and Melbourne.

Geelong has won its last three games to put itself into finals contention, but those have been against sides below it on the ladder.

VFL Stabs
Reported by Paul Amy
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MOST kicks the Bendigo Bombers have got this year have been to the guts. Another came last Wednesday when their Queen Elizabeth Oval was ruled out of bounds for the rest of the season, denying the battling regional club four home matches and vital income. All games were transferred to Windy Hill. Bendigo and Geelong officials and AFL Victoria operations manager John Hook inspected the QEO, and the Cats, seeing only rolled mud through the centre, refused to sign off on it for the Round 13 clash. 

Club and league officials decided the Round 15, 16 and 19 matches should also be played at Essendon. Hook said there was uneven grass cover and firmness. “The risk factor remains in the centre square and the centre corridor,” he said. “It is disappointing for the Bendigo Bombers and the people of Bendigo that no more VFL matches will be played at the QEO this year. But we have to consider the welfare of players and we had to eliminate that risk of injury, particularly as the VFL has so many AFL players.” Bendigo Bombers general manager Peter Lodejiwks said the transfer of matches would cost the club about $40,000. Hook told Inside Football that he and AFL Victoria chief executive Peter Schwab would speak to the AFL and the AFL Players’ Association about “minimum standards” for VFL grounds. He said they needed to recognise that the condition of AFL venues could not be replicated at state league level.

A winter of discontent
Reported by Phil Cleary
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Too often, no matter how much we sing the praises of a day at the family friendly VFL and spruik for our capacity to produce potential AFL players it looks like there is only one game in town. While the announcement of the relocation of the Saints to Seaford – with AFL, council and state government funding - was enough to warrant a full front page in the local Leader newspaper, the municipality’s VFL team, Frankston, is struggling to be heard.

Given there are no available AFL alignments, speculation about the cash strapped Dolphins is a regular occurrence in VFL football. At half-time during Saturday’s ABC telecast match at Casey Fields football manager Bryan Mace called on the local business community to support the club. In the second half the Dolphins crumbled against the Melbourne-aligned Casey Scorpions, raising more questions about the club’s future.

The contrasting state of the VFL’s two stand-alone clubs is plain to see. When Port Melbourne came to life in the ‘70s it did so on the back of a large working class community with a deep and passionate love of its club. Gentrification of the suburb over the past thirty years has changed all that. Despite the success of the club and its current financial strength – courtesy of The Rex gaming facility – Port’s crowds are among the smallest in the competition. Whether a premiership as a stand-alone club would usher in a crowd, given the changed demographic, is a moot point.