Bendigo FL discussion 2023

[olly21]

More someone involved in the academy development type phase.

Castlemaine will effectively be the VFL reserves/academy development arm of an AFL club.

It’s exciting because if it all goes to plan every undrafted kid in the country outside the VFL will be lining up to play, with a legitimate pathway into a VFL/AFL club, sharing resources and expertise.

More someone involved in the academy development type phase.

Castlemaine will effectively be the VFL reserves/academy development arm of an AFL club.

It’s exciting because if it all goes to plan every undrafted kid in the country outside the VFL will be lining up to play, with a legitimate pathway into a VFL/AFL club, sharing resources and expertise.

I think this sounds exciting but also slightly worries me. Could mean the club will have players coming in from outside that may not buy into the club culture and be there for their own benefit. Clubs must remember they are there for their own communities to provide support and develop their own region players first and foremost. I don’t think Castlemaine will forget this tho but no local club should pander to a VFL club

 

[redragger]

I think this sounds exciting but also slightly worries me. Could mean the club will have players coming in from outside that may not buy into the club culture and be there for their own benefit. Clubs must remember they are there for their own communities to provide support and develop their own region players first and foremost. I don’t think Castlemaine will forget this tho but no local club should pander to a VFL club

How are they going to fit all these players into their points allocation?

 

[Forest St End]

I think this sounds exciting but also slightly worries me. Could mean the club will have players coming in from outside that may not buy into the club culture and be there for their own benefit. Clubs must remember they are there for their own communities to provide support and develop their own region players first and foremost. I don’t think Castlemaine will forget this tho but no local club should pander to a VFL club

They have a good core of young senior players and under 18s coming through. What they desperately need are 6 high quality players to complement them and allow the kids to be developed without being smashed each week.

How are they going to fit all these players into their points allocation?

They have 10-15 points spare most weeks already and will shave another 4 or 5 from guys there last year already.

Huntly is a one pointer so that helps but I think the real answer to your question is AFL CV will give them whatever they ask for, within reason.

 

[tasmanlvr]

Needs to be said but well done to the Maryborough under 18s on securing a finals win. First football finals win since the reserves' 2010 flag and a great result for the program that's been built over the last two seasons. Hopefully leads to better and bigger things.

 

[FreshFm]

16 Kyneton local players seniors and reserves at the RDFL final today, safe to say the players know where they want to be and will be playing in 2024.

Hearing all but 1 president has individually reached out to the club over the last 7 days to try and convince the club to stay. They have all made it clear if Kyneton leave they are very worried it’s going to be a start of a domino effect which the league might not come back from

 

[Trent the flight Steward]

The bfl will be fine, white hills and marong could both step up and be competitive, in the near future, like strath, they are growing clubs

 

[localfootyguru]

Needs to be said but well done to the Maryborough under 18s on securing a finals win. First football finals win since the reserves' 2010 flag and a great result for the program that's been built over the last two seasons. Hopefully leads to better and bigger things.

Was a terrific win over a very strong team. The Magpies played some really good footy and kudos to all involved. The club has worked hard to get the unders team going again and they certainly have some quailty young men which augurs well for the future. Was terrific to see Maryborough on the scoreboard at this time of the season.

Think they may go a bit further.

 

[FreshFm]

The bfl will be fine, white hills and marong could both step up and be competitive, in the near future, like strath, they are growing clubs

I’m sure it will be.
What would the reasons be other clubs would be against kyneton wanting to leave

 

[localfootyguru]

I think this sounds exciting but also slightly worries me. Could mean the club will have players coming in from outside that may not buy into the club culture and be there for their own benefit. Clubs must remember they are there for their own communities to provide support and develop their own region players first and foremost. I don’t think Castlemaine will forget this tho but no local club should pander to a VFL club

I am with you Olly. All sounds exciting but in a few years the coach and his offsiders will be gone and the so called development players will too. Sounds like the club is going to be used for people with higher ambitions. How about we just focus on making the club stable, sustainable and playing an important role in the community.

People with ambitions never hang around and more often than not things go backwards at a rapid rate. Seen it happen before - people blinded by all the ‘bling and false promises‘ which only works for a short time.

 

[Forest St End]

I’m sure it will be.
What would the reasons be other clubs would be against kyneton wanting to leave

AFL CV will be into them to contact Kyneton because they know the league is in serious trouble.

I disagree with Trent here, the BFL is in strife. Why would any committee of White Hills, Marong etc want to land themselves with raising significantly more affiliation fees and salary for no real benefit to anyone except the existing BFL structure.

Kyneton gone, Gisborne will follow within 2 years max, Maryborough hanging by a thread, Castlemaine needs to find a way to be sustainable long term.

Jump forward to 2025 and you could well have a 7 team competition. There’s stuff all interest in the finals series this year, imagine if it is the same four teams every year who have just had to pad out a 14 game season.

Major league? Major joke.

 

[Forest St End]

I am with you Olly. All sounds exciting but in a few years the coach and his offsiders will be gone and the so called development players will too. Sounds like the club is going to be used for people with higher ambitions. How about we just focus on making the club stable, sustainable and playing an important role in the community.

People with ambitions never hang around and more often than not things go backwards at a rapid rate. Seen it happen before - people blinded by all the ‘bling and false promises‘ which only works for a short time.

I think any club with the chance to have a partnership with a major AFL club would jump at it. Coaches will come and go but there will always be AFL players coming out of the system that the club will be encouraging to develop themselves by coaching their own team while working in lesser roles at AFL level.

From what I hear it’s not being entered into lightly and smart people have come up with a long term sustainable vision that will benefit everyone.

Not like Castlemaine has anything to lose anyway, this time last year they were even money to be in recess this season. If they get three good years and crash at least they had three.

 

[Trent the flight Steward]

You'd hope they sign a 5 year affiliation with the vfl club, otherwise it will go. Needs 5 years for it to work, and so young guys change their junior club in the area to play with maine. If it's only 1 or 2 years, although I like the concept, I think it will fail, as both clubs need time for it work beneficially for each other.



I'd say it worked out pretty well for strath Jumping into the bfl, their set up now would be the envy of most country clubs

 

[Forest St End]

I'd say it worked out pretty well for strath Jumping into the bfl, their set up now would be the envy of most country clubs

I’d argue the landscape has changed significantly since the Storm came in.

The two biggest factors are the BFL has diminished in status as a league and now really has no more significance than any other league around, and the mechanism Strath used to have success is no longer available, theoretically anyway.

 

[GG Rides Again]

I think any club with the chance to have a partnership with a major AFL club would jump at it. Coaches will come and go but there will always be AFL players coming out of the system that the club will be encouraging to develop themselves by coaching their own team while working in lesser roles at AFL level.

From what I hear it’s not being entered into lightly and smart people have come up with a long term sustainable vision that will benefit everyone.

Not like Castlemaine has anything to lose anyway, this time last year they were even money to be in recess this season. If they get three good years and crash at least they had three.

Just looking at this premise objectively. You have a young development kid from Maryborough signed to Essendon VFL, so he then cannot play at Maryborough as he is aligned to Castlemaine via VFL alignment?
If you develop the kid through your system and club as a minimum they should be able to play senior footy for your club. Interstate players coming in no issue as need somewhere to play to develop. Any player signed in Victoria would be available to go to their home club first everytime IMO.
Dont mention the war, but Bendigo Diggers/Gold had a long term sustainable vision to benefit football in the region.

 

[Trent the flight Steward]

The bfl might not be what it was like in the 80s and mid 90s, but it's still the premier league in north-west vic, and to play footy on the qeo is pretty good experience for any country footballer.



Straths success is based off their powerful juniors and getting in darryl wilson as head coach, sharps a local, many of their guns have been juniors, their depth and ability to keep having juniors coming through knowing how to play strath footy, is why they're so good.


Yep it's interesting gg, I think the bombers best years, when they made guys play in the bfl that weren't picked in the bombers. As you say if a sandhurst 19 year old wants to better himself and play vfl, will he switch to maine at 15, to go under their senior development coach, some have suggested it's being happening the other way with pios hopefuls in the area, switching to the strong bendigo town clubs

 

[Forest St End]

The bfl might not be what it was like in the 80s and mid 90s, but it's still the premier league in north-west vic, and to play footy on the qeo is pretty good experience for any country footballer.



Straths success is based off their powerful juniors and getting in darryl wilson as head coach, sharps a local, many of their guns have been juniors, their depth and ability to keep having juniors coming through knowing how to play strath footy, is why they're so good.

You’ve got a fairly optimistic view of footy I think Trent.

The BFL is on a huge decline for mine, the gap to the other leagues around gets smaller every year. More and more now we see guys playing their peak footy head to other leagues around, that was unheard of 20 or 30 years ago apart from the softest of the soft.

And all of those things may well be true about Strath but none of them were as big a factor in winning flags as the 200k spend was. The infamous no pay game showed that.

 

[ROOTA#6]

You’ve got a fairly optimistic view of footy I think Trent.

The BFL is on a huge decline for mine, the gap to the other leagues around gets smaller every year. More and more now we see guys playing their peak footy head to other leagues around, that was unheard of 20 or 30 years ago apart from the softest of the soft.

And all of those things may well be true about Strath but none of them were as big a factor in winning flags as the 200k spend was. The infamous no pay game showed that.

200k Strath spend….and what no pay game?

 

[MortlockWatcher]

Please, do tell. I haven't heard of that before.

 

[Mad Jack]

This idea of Castlemaine’s, whilst I agree they need to do something different to the past, or against the current trend given their poor history over the past decade or so, for me doesn’t sound super sustainable.
Amongst many things, how will it look from a training perspective? Will the VFL aligned players, which by the sound of the plan would make up more than half of the team, ever train at Castlemaine? Or will they just role up on match day and play?
It sounds in its totality that it could help in the short term, but long term is unlikely to be sustainable. Gotta try something I guess.
And then, what happens if the AFLCV crew get their wish and Castlemaine are demoted to a tier 2 league or division - that would put a line through the whole thing, AFL clubs won’t want development players playing down a level, not that I think Bendigo as a whole will be regarded as a “premier” comp for much longer.

 

[Forest St End]

Please, do tell. I haven't heard of that before.

Stretching my memory a bit as it was a while ago now.

The gist of it was the committee went to the Storm players during the season and said they were down a bit on expected revenue and couldn’t manage the player payments. A few options were presented for cuts. Needless to say it wasn’t well received.

They went out that weekend and got smashed by a far inferior side. Guys were openly telling their opponents the situation.

There’s a few more details that I won’t share to protect identities but you can take it to the bank that it happened.

It’s why I always laugh at all the talk about great clubs and great coaches and especially great cultures. Extraordinary how often those things emerge when the money is right.

 

[Forest St End]

This idea of Castlemaine’s, whilst I agree they need to do something different to the past, or against the current trend given their poor history over the past decade or so, for me doesn’t sound super sustainable.
Amongst many things, how will it look from a training perspective? Will the VFL aligned players, which by the sound of the plan would make up more than half of the team, ever train at Castlemaine? Or will they just role up on match day and play?
It sounds in its totality that it could help in the short term, but long term is unlikely to be sustainable. Gotta try something I guess.
And then, what happens if the AFLCV crew get their wish and Castlemaine are demoted to a tier 2 league or division - that would put a line through the whole thing, AFL clubs won’t want development players playing down a level, not that I think Bendigo as a whole will be regarded as a “premier” comp for much longer.

Probably much too premature to worry about what the Maine are doing and what might or might not work. They haven’t even announced anything yet so it’s heavy speculation.

Whatever the longer term partnership brings it has already given then a great player and coach for the next two years, a couple of gun recruits and 90% of this years players signed for next year already.
There’s more excitement and optimism around the place than there has been for a long time so it’s already a good thing.

 

[ROOTA#6]

Stretching my memory a bit as it was a while ago now.

The gist of it was the committee went to the Storm players during the season and said they were down a bit on expected revenue and couldn’t manage the player payments. A few options were presented for cuts. Needless to say it wasn’t well received.

They went out that weekend and got smashed by a far inferior side. Guys were openly telling their opponents the situation.

There’s a few more details that I won’t share to protect identities but you can take it to the bank that it happened.

It’s why I always laugh at all the talk about great clubs and great coaches and especially great cultures. Extraordinary how often those things emerge when the money is right.

Must have been well before my time at the club

 

[FreshFm]

Mitch Collins gone to Charlton, hearing he is the first of 6-8 senior locals who will follow.

Take away the recruits Jones Brought with him, they are going to need 12 recruits to even be on par with this years side.

BIG TROUBLE brewing at Flat

 

[ringo1]

Mitch Collins gone to Charlton, hearing he is the first of 6-8 senior locals who will follow.

Take away the recruits Jones Brought with him, they are going to need 12 recruits to even be on par with this years side.

BIG TROUBLE brewing at Flat

Thank God for a resurgent Castlemaine if this is correct. No Kyneton, a struggling Maryborough, Gisborne possibly on the move in the future and now Flat assumably on the ropes leaves the league with a lot of thinking to do.The BFL is a shadow of what it was back in the 80's and 90's.

 

[Forest St End]

Mitch Collins gone to Charlton, hearing he is the first of 6-8 senior locals who will follow.

Take away the recruits Jones Brought with him, they are going to need 12 recruits to even be on par with this years side.

BIG TROUBLE brewing at Flat

It’s interesting because of the perennial underachieving clubs they were the only ones adamant they had no interest in being anywhere but the BFL and the top division if it came to that.

I don’t really speculate on them as I assume they are well supported financially by the sports club but could they be in danger of tipping over?