Richmond to have stand alone from 2013. I hope its not the death of coburg

[HBFlanker]

Fair call.

Demolish the reserves in the vfl. Have squads of 34. The 12 that miss out each week play local.

Could possibly have players signed to a reserves contract with the afl clubs. Where they can only play reserves, hoping to get drafted again at a later stage.

Hard to think of an exact method. That's why demetriou is on 2 mil

 

[Slazenger]

Sounds easy but where you getting all these players from? 10 AFL side, 10 AFL reserves sides, 14 VFL side + there reserve sides and all the local clubs around, just won't happen.

Exactly,
Plus the Damage that has been done to a lot of these club is more than likely unable to be reversed.

Can anyone realistically see the Mustangs emerge from what now is Boxthorn?
Does Preston simply get a hold of a Collingwood Members mailing list to inform all its departed supporters that the whole Carlton thing was a terrible mistake?

 

[SUNS]

Has there been much said about this lately?

 

[CrowdedHouse]

From Paul Amy (Inside Football) on twitter

Shame to hear Coburg general manager Graeme Blow has resigned. Very well regarded in his short time in the VFL and won't easily be replaced

 

[JDC!]

Surely a stand alone Coburg side would struggle next season?

 

[Woefully Inept]

Surely a stand alone Coburg side would struggle next season?

Like Bendigo, yeah we might struggle a bit at first, but it'll be about establishing a good platform for the future.

Will be able to offer senior football to a lot more boys, and use the Frankston model to take the club forward.

A few more players will be needed, but we'd do fine against a Richmond reserves side and several seniors sides

 

[JDC!]

Like Bendigo, yeah we might struggle a bit at first, but it'll be about establishing a good platform for the future.

Will be able to offer senior football to a lot more boys, and use the Frankston model to take the club forward.

A few more players will be needed, but we'd do fine against a Richmond reserves side and several seniors sides

Yeah it'll be interesting. Do you think Coburg will struggle as much as Bendigo have this season?

 

[what did you say]

bendigo can't get ex players (afl) back for training, they have a few ex listed players from the afl but there just no good at all, looking at the geelong method they are onto a winner,they had 16 vfl listed players the other week an won an keep winning,

cats method is to link uptop a local club an give a call up to players as they need them,coburg can try an base themself off this as there re plenty of good local boys around, it's almost like the good old days of zone drafting... in saying all that coburgs vfl players are very sup par but try there guts out
c

 

[Woefully Inept]

Yeah it'll be interesting. Do you think Coburg will struggle as much as Bendigo have this season?

Nope, got a better platform with a development side already, and have a better location to sell to players. I'd say there's a chance of the side performing like Frankston did for a year possibly, but the foundations are in good positions

 

[CrazyJoeFevola]

Not a Coburg man by any stretch of the imagination, but living just down the road in Preston, I've already seen the mighty Bullants virtually die, I'll be damned if I see the Lions go to their grave. Will be buying a membership in solidarity next season and putting as much money as I can over the bar down at City Oval

 

[Riccardo11]

Even the Borough with all our history and strength came last the year after we ended our alignment with Norf. Coburg may struggle initially, but I hope people will get behind them. I am even considering buying a membership myself next year in addition to my Port Melbourne one just to help them out. I am hearing rumours around the place that Sandi is going to do a Port/Willi and tell their AFL aligned club in the Saints to go jump, which will surely be make or break time for the VFA teams, all of whose licenses to be in the VFL run out at the end of next year.

 

[Harmichael]

well looks like it's mission accomplished for the AFL, it has taken them all of 20 years, but they have finally killed off the VFA. The only hope imho is for the old VFA clubs to break away and reform the old VFA, albeit with a highly reduced salary cap. What is the point of them being in the VFL if almost all AFL clubs are now not aligned?

I'd suggest the new VFA clubs might even have to go amateur for a few years to get their running costs and administration under control before they can consider increasing salaries. Would love to see Fitzroy, and even the old South Melbourne make a comeback to the new league

I agree but under their old names, Gorillas & Blood Stained Angels respectively - too many duplicate mascots across the leagues as it is.

 

[StevenFutureAFL]

The AFL need to think seriously about what they are doing with State football. Is the main issue that too many players are on AFL lists meaning they have a heap of players needing to play in other teams on a Saturday? Or is the issue that teams in the VFL, SANFL, WAFL, TFL, NEAFL have nowhere to go when they succeed and no real incentive for these players to stay at these clubs. If Port Melbourne become a powerhouse team, what does it matter, all their players will just go off to play AFL and they will be back to where they started. A 2nd division with promotion possible for these clubs could be the answer.

Back to the current day situation, I think the only possible solution is to let all the AFL clubs have 2nds teams in the VFL and have all the VFA clubs stand alone. Also bring Preston Bullants and Fitzroy (VAFA) into the competition, which would make a competition of 22 teams.

Sandringham Zebras
Box Hill Mustangs
Casey Scorpions
Coburg Lions
Frankston Dolphins
Werribee Tigers
North Ballarat Roosters
Preston Bullants
Fitzroy Lions
Bendigo Gold
Williamstown Seagulls
Port Melbourne Boroughs
St Kilda Saints
Footscray Bulldogs
Hawthorn Hawks
Melbourne Demons
Geelong Cats
Essendon Bombers
Richmond Tigers
Collingwood Magpies
Carlton Blues
North Melbourne Kangaroos

Let this league play out for awhile, and see how competitive all the stand alone teams are, the ones who really struggle, could possibly be dropped back to a local league, 2 teams dropping back would give a 20 team competition.

This is at least fair to all AFL Victorian clubs, and leaves in tact the identity of the VFA clubs. I am not sure how viable a 22 team comp is, but I am pretty sure the fans would get behind this comp and crowds would go up, increasing profit for AFL Victoria.

 

[Riccardo11]

http://www.footballnation.com.au/afl/afl-clubs/sandringham-wait-for-response-from-saints/

It appears St Kilda will ditch Sandringham and field their own side from 2014. Surely this is the final straw and a stand alone AFL Reserves competition must be run alongside an AFL Victoria operated VFA.

 

[Albert Ross]

Even the Borough with all our history and strength came last the year after we ended our alignment with Norf. Coburg may struggle initially, but I hope people will get behind them.

Difference is Port have pokies and property. Williamstown and Werribee have pokies. Sandringham has a popular facility that they rent out for 21sts and so on (as do Willy). North Ballarat has a large sportsman's club with pokies. Coburg has no sources of income, there is no way they are going to find the $500-$600k to operate, and they won't be able to compete with the NFL or EDFL clubs for wages. Marby Park, Northcote, Greensborough etc are all bigger clubs that the Lions.


In 2008 Coburg's income was $723k and Richmond kicked in about $300k of that. You'd think their matchday income will fall and perhaps their sponsorships too.

 

[Riccardo11]

Phil Cleary did say on Saturdays VFL coverage that Coburgs future was not in doubt and it was actually very bright. I hope he is right, maybe they have managed to find a rich backer (or resumed the relationship with Fitzroy), who knows?

 

[Roylion]

Phil Cleary did say on Saturdays VFL coverage that Coburgs future was not in doubt and it was actually very bright. I hope he is right, maybe they have managed to find a rich backer (or resumed the relationship with Fitzroy), who knows?

I'd certainly buy a Coburg membership, (and would make further financial contributions to the club) if they resumed their relationship with Fitzroy. That would mean including them in their name. i.e "Coburg-Fitzroy Lions" and wearing the Fitzroy jumper for a few (not all) of their games. They would also need to use the Fitzroy lion logo as part of their branding. They'd get quite a few Fitzroy supporters along to their games if they did this.

 

[local footy fan]

as an old coburg supporter i hope the club survives but with the amount of money on offer to players in the edfl it will make it hard for coburg to attrach good players as they do not play for the glory or rerward
or of playing in a good comp, its all about the mighty dollar most of 1st division in the edfl would spend triple the amount of money to pay players then all the vfl sides. as i understand vfl side player budgets are set at around the 70 to 80 k mark so why would the good players take a pay cut? Go Burgers

 

[Albert Ross]

as an old coburg supporter i hope the club survives but with the amount of money on offer to players in the edfl it will make it hard for coburg to attrach good players as they do not play for the glory or rerward
or of playing in a good comp, its all about the mighty dollar most of 1st division in the edfl would spend triple the amount of money to pay players then all the vfl sides. as i understand vfl side player budgets are set at around the 70 to 80 k mark so why would the good players take a pay cut? Go Burgers

Teams like Collingwood and Geelong have a $150k cap for their VFL listed players. They have a list of 11 primary and 11 sup players. So it works out at about $500 a game.

The partially aligned teams like Coburg now have $250k cap I think. The stand-alones have $350k cap.

If you say the reserves players at a club like Coburg get $60 a game that is 18 games x 22 players x $60 = about $25k. That leaves about $325k for 30ish senior players which works out at about about $10k per player which is about $600 a game.

In contrast the Mid-Murray league which is a miniscule comphas a cap of about $100k. But most guys at those clubs will pay for free letting them offer $30k to one or two players at about $2-3k a game.

Almost every footballer in the VFL could double his money by going to a local or country league.

 

[Stratton_Gun]

Know a guy who works at Coburg who says they are really struggling for funds next year and the presidential take over wasn't that smooth. The new guy just got back from a holiday as well

 

[Woefully Inept]

Know a guy who works at Coburg who says they are really struggling for funds next year and the presidential take over wasn't that smooth. The new guy just got back from a holiday as well

Funds wise we're doing ok, should be right for next year
By presidential takeover i assume you mean GM take over as President is 100% behind the club and working very hard, and it was relatively smooth (as smooth as finding and replacing a guy in 2 weeks is). Holiday was already known about and dealt with accordingly, but GM is doing fine.

Big function at the game this Sunday as we return to being the Lions, lots of past players attending, hoping for a good crowd and a positive atmosphere

 

[Stratton_Gun]

Funds wise we're doing ok, should be right for next year
By presidential takeover i assume you mean GM take over as President is 100% behind the club and working very hard, and it was relatively smooth (as smooth as finding and replacing a guy in 2 weeks is). Holiday was already known about and dealt with accordingly, but GM is doing fine.

Big function at the game this Sunday as we return to being the Lions, lots of past players attending, hoping for a good crowd and a positive atmosphere

Yeh must have been the GM. I also have been told that despite going on holiday for the 1st couple of weeks the new guy is much better and will have a better "presence"
Good luck for next season!

 

[West_Coast_Eagles]

Great to see Phil Cleary at the game yesterday.

As I said in this thread 12 months ago. Phil cleary needs to be involved in this next 12 months. Otherwise they are in deep trouble.

 

[evo]

It is a golden opportunity to re-include Fitzroy FC back into the VFL fold. Something along the lines of what Roylion is suggesting.

I'd definitely buy a membership.

 

[fumbler]

It is a golden opportunity to re-include Fitzroy FC back into the VFL fold. Something along the lines of what Roylion is suggesting.

I'd definitely buy a membership.

Can you point me to what he is suggesting?