Bendigo FL discussion 2025

[Wooden Robot]

Pre-season schedule is even worse. In Victoria, the "Community Series" will be played entirely at AFL venues. I didn't grow up in the BFL area so not aware of where games were hosted, but I have fond memories of attending a practice match in the late 90s at Tatura of all places.

Saw Port Adelaide play Richmond at Malseed Park in Mt Gambier as recently as 2017.
As much as I love West Gambier and their home ground, the QEO and indeed Maryborough and Canterbury Park would all be far better venues for an AFL-sanctioned game than Malseed Park, which has no grandstand by the way.

 

[JP Ollards]

We can agree to disagree on this point JP, but without putting words in his mouth, I understand the key point 'Harsh, but fair' was making was that the finals were too Bendigo-centric and playing some outside Bendigo would send the right message to a club like Moama looking at coming into the competition. Hence I really want to focus on the country (non-Bendigo) options for finals and in this regard go back to the comments I made about Castlemaine, Gisborne & Maryborough being the only current possibilities and in particular the pluses of having one at Maryborough. What do you think?

Yep love to see a final played anywhere outside the qeo mate, the grounds are all a pretty good standard

 

[JP Ollards]

Pre-season schedule is even worse. In Victoria, the "Community Series" will be played entirely at AFL venues. I didn't grow up in the BFL area so not aware of where games were hosted, but I have fond memories of attending a practice match in the late 90s at Tatura of all places.

You used to get a game pretty regularly at the qeo, deakin at shepp, colac, Wang, morwell. Pretty disappointing to be honest isn't it

 

[ROOTA#6]

Yep love to see a final played anywhere outside the qeo mate, the grounds are all a pretty good standard

Parking and getting in and out is an issue at all Bendigo grounds especially Eaglehawk

 

[fatkidinthepocket]

Parking and getting in and out is an issue at all Bendigo grounds especially Eaglehawk

Parking at Bendigo grounds is ordinary but to be fair there is a few sides with little or no supporters from what Ive seen. Havent seen the ground at Huntly could it be further developed to be an alternative(neutral) venue for finals?

 

[ROOTA#6]

Parking at Bendigo grounds is ordinary but to be fair there is a few sides with little or no supporters from what Ive seen. Havent seen the ground at Huntly could it be further developed to be an alternative(neutral) venue?

Bendigo really missed a trick when building the Epsom/Huntly precinct. One of those grounds should have been made to host regular senior footy

 

[ringo1]

Bendigo really missed a trick when building the Epsom/Huntly precinct. One of those grounds should have been made to host regular senior footy

The master plan included a full gym, heated pool, spa sauna, etc. There was also scope for doctors and physios etc. Unfortunately, it never happened due to funding issues.

 

[Forest St End]

This whole discussion really depends on the dividend question.

If there’s no money to share there’s not much point in giving a final to someone to host, unless it’s just to spread the game to different places.

What happens in Heathcote these days?

 

[howmuch]

This whole discussion really depends on the dividend question.

If there’s no money to share there’s not much point in giving a final to someone to host, unless it’s just to spread the game to different places.

What happens in Heathcote these days?

Finals shared on a rotation system from year to year. Club hosting the final get everything except the gate.

GF played at Huntly, all clubs work different shifts. League gets gate, everything else divided equally between clubs once overheads are covered.

 

[jayco13]

Pre-season schedule is even worse. In Victoria, the "Community Series" will be played entirely at AFL venues. I didn't grow up in the BFL area so not aware of where games were hosted, but I have fond memories of attending a practice match in the late 90s at Tatura of all places.

Yep I remember watching North at Tat... v Geelong maybe?

 

[Kilonewton]

Pre-season schedule is even worse. In Victoria, the "Community Series" will be played entirely at AFL venues. I didn't grow up in the BFL area so not aware of where games were hosted, but I have fond memories of attending a practice match in the late 90s at Tatura of all places.

Whilst I agree that the Community Series should be played at community venues, look at it from the clubs’ perspective. The players are getting paid big money, and if they get a long term injury due to the substandard venues, it’s a big lost cost that could have been avoided.
As Maryborough is being thrown up as where they “should” play a game, can you imagine a race for a loose ball in the goal square, and then the players not being able to pull up in time due to the short distance between the goals and the fence, which has that deep concrete trench in front of it? I could forsee an avoidable broken leg and there being much wailing & gnashing of teeth from Herald-Sun journalists. The Ballarat Goal Umpires moan about the lack of space and slope to the trench when they do Finals there!

 

[NeonLeon81]

With a name like (Nick) Thompson where else could he possibly play?

Is he related to the tribe at Eaglehawk?

Are you sure he is a 'former player' MJ? He would be 18 years old I think.

One of the great mysteries to me is why is it considered desirable to have Pioneer players on your list when they are lining up for the Pioneers?

In the hope they would stay on after their year in 18s. Obviously.

 

[NeonLeon81]

Roota, I see your point although in my experience, administrators have done nothing to support non Bendigo based clubs and strategically look at football in the region. They have known there were problems for many years with clubs struggling to survive and poaching players from fellow clubs using various incentives in order to keep their club going. This along with a points and salary cap system that has more holes in them than swiss cheese was supposed to correct all the issues - what absolute rubbish. Both AFL Victoria and previous members of the AFL Central Victoria board and the BFNL were told numerous times of the issues my club and other clubs both in the BFNL and other leagues faced and nothing was ever done to support us. The agendas from so called ‘influential’ clubs were seen as far more important than the survival of clubs like mine (Maryborough FNC). The best example in recent times of where the BFNL is at and being out of touch was the admission of Broadford FNC, a topic that has been done to death here.

Whilst I agree as a club we need to evolve, work hard and try a range of initiatives/ practices to stay afloat, those in charge play a key role in the future of the game in the region. Unfortunately on many occasions despite our approaches, we received ‘radio silence’. My club has unfortunately and sadly gone into recess and perhaps when a few more occur (which is likely), someone may wake up and think there is a problem we need to address. At this time I feel those in charge just shrug their shoulders, put out some corporate speak statement and quickly move on. There seems to be little to no accountability for those in charge and we at club land often pay the price.

All very frustrating and sad from my perspective.

Well written.

I’m genuinely interested in the first 5 things you would change / do if you were given the solo reigns of AFL central vic and asked to help fix this mess.


What are a few major things that AFL central vic and the Bendigo “power clubs” have done in the past decade that has negatively affected your clubs the most to be in the situation you’re in now?

I don’t doubt there have been many little eyebrow raising decisions over the years but I’d love someone to spell out articulate clearly (as you have somewhat above) what are the decisions or lack of that have lead us hear?

 

[NeonLeon81]

I’m so glad you post here lfg, it’s such a good take on the issues.

You can interchange Maryborough/Kyneton/Castlemaine into these posts because the issues and experiences are all the same.

This rubbish about whinging clubs needing to life themselves belongs with wanting the VFL back or demanding AFL players man up and kick long.

It is an indisputable fact that I think we all agree on, that the AFL and by extension the hub has failed in its custodianship of the game. They have failed to address the challenges facing clubs, failed to produce an equalisation policy that is effective and in fact have made things more uneven, and take the cowardly approach of letting clubs determine the structure of the game in the country.

Whatever else we disagree on, I don’t think there’s anyone that is claiming the hubs have been good for the game or that they have made any positive contribution at all.

Where we cross wires is some people assert clubs speaking out about that are somehow absolving themselves of any responsibility for their own performance.

That is just not the case. Have the three clubs made good and bad decisions over the last 25 years? Of course they have. Have they had good and bad operators in various positions over those years? Of course they have. Personally I’d suggest they are no more or less well run than any other club but that’s a matter of opinion.

What isn’t a matter of opinion though is there are things that those clubs simply cannot control.

They can’t determine the population of their community and how many people of each age group live there. They can’t dictate the financial markets and control the trend towards globalisation and franchise business or the size of business in their community. They can’t control the education system and determine which types of schools operate in their area.

There are many of these high level complex demographical factors that impact the prospects of clubs and it takes an organisation like the AFL to have the resources to analyse and adapt to them, but they have failed to do so.

That’s why good clubs are pissed off and complaining and why they will continue to do so. And rightly so.

Also well written and love the acknowledgement that some of this situation is out of the control of clubs and in some respects the leagues.

I pose the same question to you

I’m genuinely interested in the first 5 things you would change / do if you were given the solo reigns of AFL central vic and asked to help fix this mess.


What are a few major things that AFL central vic and the Bendigo “power clubs” have done in the past decade that has negatively affected your clubs the most to be in the situation you’re in now?

I don’t doubt there have been many little eyebrow raising decisions over the years but I’d love someone to spell out articulate clearly (as you have somewhat above) what are the decisions or lack of that have lead us hear?