Dual Alignment not the answer.

[Higgins2Waite]

I can see both sides but like KC I'm starting to lean towards a stand alone team. I like the idea of implementing a game plan so that younger players can transition into the first team a lot easier. I'd like to see an academy style coaching approach also.

 

[Twinkletoes]

Are you sure about that? How do you know that is the case?

Never question what's said inside the Inner Scrotum EH. LT Smash is the guardian of the testicle within said exclusive club. Take it as fact!

 

[hottieburger]

Does anyone know what it cost us to travel to Utah for 3 weeks? I would think having a stand alone team and the development of our younger players would have fair greater benefits then going to utah.

 

[Event Horizon]

Never question what's said inside the Inner Scrotum EH. LT Smash is the guardian of the testicle within said exclusive club. Take it as fact!

Ok, I'll take that as fact.
But seems a bit puzzling, that all other clubs (including the Dogs who aren't swimming in money) are seeing the benefits of a standalone side, but we aren't. It was painful to watch Hawthorn reserves (which is all Box Hill is at the moment) take Werribee apart, with so many North reserve players unable to get involved. And to see Box Hill play in such a Hawthorn way, was a key factor for me. I would argue that we should have a lot more talent at the bottom end of our list than Hawthorn, given the picks available to them over the last 5 years. Yet their youngsters (irrespective of where in the draft they were picked) seem to be developing well, and are ready to step into the senior team.

We don't have that luxury, which may in part explain why we made so few changes to the side this year, despite being out of the eight for the entire season. Sure, you can say it was lack of injuries. but I would argue if we could work on specific players for specific positions in our own reserve side, we would have been in a better position to bring players in without fearing it would set us back.

Nothing against Utah, as I simply don't know enough from the inner scrotum to be able to know exactly what we are getting as a result of those trips. But I would have thought for development of the list, it is time for us to start making pure football decisions, and not marketing or financially driven decisions at this stage.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Would love for us to have our own side.

Would enable complete control over who plays where.

 

[GarnerSmash]

Would love for us to have our own side.

Would enable complete control over who plays where.

It would be amazeballs.

But unfortunately it seems to be either invest in the FD via fitness and coaching or get a team up and going in the VFL, with the annual costs that entails and the locating of a suitable venue/upgrade to our own facilities.

Perhaps in a few years when the debt is gone.

 

[naturally north]

That just means we need to raise more money or slow down the debt repayment or scrap Utah or whatever the club thinks is the best option. This needs to be a football decision. Hopefully we can finally get to that point.

I meant no football related cons.

Or just don't offer Eddie Betts 500K a year!

 

[Event Horizon]

Or just don't offer Eddie Betts 500K a year!

Personally, I think Eddie Betts would improve our side. Whether he is worth 500k or not is debatable, and does sound expensive, but sometimes you overpay for a free agent, to get them to come, instead of trading for a player. Bottom line is, if he improves our side by a couple of goals a game, how do you put a value on that?

I would say that the footy department needs to make the call of what their priorities are. But I hope we don't miss the boat with player development in the mean time.

 

[naturally north]

EH, that is the $69:00 question: stern look ( Hope I did that right)

Are we better off with total player development or Betts. I'm betting, Betts isn't worth the whole squads improvement.

I think our house needs to be in order and then we can look at recruiting FA's.

 

[CupsKing]

We have had standalone (Murray) fully aligned (Port) 1st partial alignment (NB & Tas) 2nd partial alignment (NB & Werribee) in the VFL. There have been many reasons why we have ended up where we are but the dual alignment between NB & Werribee has been the best arrangement and most successful in terms of saving money and players having exposure to senior VFL football and VFL finals.
My information is NB do not want a full alignment. Their reason being is they want to develop their own talent from their zone and having up to 16 AFL players come back and play with no ties to the area does not allow that. They are the most financial club in the comp and they believe that with the top up of AFL talent it keeps them competitive. Same goes for Werribee. We can have players developing in the same positions without fighting for game time.
We can takeover Coburg or Frankston because that' all that left. Port & Willy won't go down the alignment path again.

 

[Johnny99]

I don't think the $$$ have anything to do with it. Advertising on the reserves jumper, member donations and AFL grants will easily cover a seconds team.

Rather, I think this Board is committed to building its ties in SW Melbourne, Werribee and Ballarat.

Which personally, I believe is a good thing for the LT future of the club.

This is the reason why we don't want to walk away and start up our own team.

It would look like we are abandoning the region.

But as EH pointed out, this is a commercial decision. To be successful on field, we must make football decisions.

There is no doubt, having one reserve team, where our drafted players play the game style we play in the seniors. Where our players train together during the week and play together on the weekend. Where our coaches can teach and manage each player. Where our medics can look after our team. This is the way to go. (watch the Geelong and Box Hill weekend games on ABC Iview, if you have any doubt).

But to do this, we need to walk away from the two regions we are trying to build a fan base in.

Can we do this ?

I think if we want to be successful, we have to...

 

[DarwinRoo]

Box Hill is an alignment, you do realise its not Hawthorn's reserves?

And I was on the VFL website today and it said that this is the first GF for Box Hill in 10 years. North Ballarat won 3 flags in a row in that time and Werribee have started to come good aswell.

 

[Slaja]

Its no good for the vfl clubs either. Look at Werribee, they get into the finals on the back of a strong north contingent,and then guys like Harper and Daw and others go in for post season operations which leaves them light on in the finals. These ops suit north but were crap formwerribee

 

[DaveyBoy123]

Very good point DaveyBoy.

Thanks Johnny.

So many pros & cons to all options... Don't really know the answer with regards to what's best for North in the short or medium term, or even what's best for the VFL (which could genuinely turn into an AFL Reserves competition if they're not careful).

Our lack of injuries over the past 2 years has meant the dual alignment has worked ok, but having players played out of position could severely hamper player development moving forward. Sure, that could still happen with a single alignment, but I think there would be less chance.

I'm unsure what injuries Werribee had to their players during the year, but if Clouston & Kennedy were their best 2 tall defenders for most of the season, then I can't even fathom how they finished 4th. Even in previous years, they had under-sized players such as Mangan & Hartigan filling those posts. So are North paying the price for Werribee not recruiting properly?

 

[Rockstar6]

I would love to see a NM VFL side but Werribee and North Ballarat have been good to us and I would feel bad if we were to just pack up and stand alone

 

[benbanjo]

They followed the Scott West game plan. They dont follow the Brad Scott game plan.

With the New laws coming in they can get married and then we can have the Scott Scott game plan....

I think we might get left behind without our own VFL team....