VAFA General Discussion 2022-2023-2024

[DoubleDraw]

FWIW new vafa president creating a big footy account and the Herald Sun doing a write up on Div1-Div4 recruits, what other nuggets does 2024 have in store? Bedford as the new mod?

All VAFA posters being named,shamed and charged with 'bring game into disrepute"?

 

[Max Leader]

Find more grounds... It's not like they don't have 6 months (in season) to figure this stuff out...

Waiting on the whims of the VFL/Coates leagues for ground availabilities isn't a sustainable strategy.

Give us some suggestions.

Parade is a solid option.

Pity Carey or Trinity aren’t available.

Ford Park would be a ripper.

 

[YMEYU]

Parkdale

 

[random observer]

Give us some suggestions.

I liked St Bernard's, the one year they used it for finals (about 15 years ago). Looking down at the footy from the hill that almost rings the ground has a strange charm you don't get anywhere else. It was weirdly like watching footy at the bottom of a crater.

Plenty of very good grounds with good facilities available , just ungated , need to let go of charging to get in , particularly for lower divisions

Much though I like free finals footy (no one was even pretending to sell tickets at Hadfield last weekend), I'm not sure it is a great thing: (1) it deprives the VAFA of revenue, and (2) it converts lower division finals from an asset to the VAFA to a liability (no gate takings but still have to pay umpires, etc.). This is a problem because (1) the VAFA will make up the money somewhere else (higher fees, more fines, etc.) and (2) like most businesses, they will try to minimise their liabilities - meaning they have more of these crap triple-headers with senior football being played at 9.30am on the opposite side of the city (St John's must been thrilled to go to Hadfield).

Fwiw, Hadfield was quite a good venue (good surface, not much shelter though), but is nowhere near any VAFA club. Strange choice.

 

[eth-dog]

Parkdale

Would be perfect.

 

[TheCanvas69]

Further to the discussion quite a few grounds have had the cricket pitches renovated and these days we have so many girls finals as well , although they could be played on Elstenwick 2

Cricket pitch renos have begun. Wicks boys have had it roped off for 2-3 weeks

 

[bedford]

Cricket pitch renos have begun. Wicks boys have had it roped off for 2-3 weeks

Was an example that's all

 

[God Yeah]

Parkdale

They used to play U/19 finals there going back a number of years. Good size ground and somewhat central to the majority of teams in the VAFA

 

[MortlockWatcher]

Closer to most than Hadfield is

 

[XXXXAFL]

It's the perfect solution.

I'm just sure the VAFA would want to pump money into a club that just left the competition, optics rules over common sense at HQ.

And won a premiership In season 1.

 

[localfootylegend23]

Give us some suggestions.

Parade is a solid option.

Pity Carey or Trinity aren’t available.

Ford Park would be a ripper.

Clubs need the volunteer power to host as well, not a easy feat seeming everyones well and truly had enough by end of the season.

 

[localfootylegend23]

And won a premiership In season 1.

Grats to them, assuming if it was a better standard than vafa d2 because of the matchies, they did recruit very well, playing with nearly full 46 points every week

 

[Champ or Chump]

Grats to them, assuming if it was a better standard than vafa d2 because of the matchies, they did recruit very well, playing with nearly full 46 points every week

Recruited very well with 6 guys from Div 1 NFNL joining them, including the best player in the whole comp and others from other competitions. They had a completely different team from their Div2 (level 5) Vafa team. Imagine recruiting 6 VAFA A Graders and the best into the comp for a Div 2 Vafa team

 

[localfootylegend23]

Recruited very well with 6 guys from Div 1 NFNL joining them, including the best player in the whole comp and others from other competitions. They had a completely different team from their Div2 (level 5) Vafa team. Imagine recruiting 6 VAFA A Graders and the best into the comp for a Div 2 Vafa team

I was looking at the points the other day, I only knew of gilmore, 6 is a fair few plus handy players like cafari and nolan still running around, im not shocked they won it all. See how they go next year and if the cash is still there

 

[hansie]

Vermont has had Vafa finals before and was free, as is/was Blackburn. Both fenced and primo surfaces


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[pazza]

Apparently Westbourne with it's dual grounds offered to host this year...but would anyone want to travel west?

 

[eth-dog]

Apparently Westbourne with it's dual grounds offered to hoist this year...but would anyone want to travel west?

I'd rather travel west than north

 

[random observer]

Clubs need the volunteer power to host as well, not a easy feat seeming everyones well and truly had enough by end of the season.

Another issue is whether clubs (especially non-VAFA clubs) consider it financially worthwhile - a major concern when so many clubs have to pay helpers.

In the lower sections, VAFA grand finals usually get a good crowd, but the earlier finals are pretty sparsely attended.

One minor tweak would be to make it a final 4, even in 11- or 12-team divisions. It doesn't drag on so long, and the first week of a final 5 is the worst - the elimination final has some interest, but the qualifying final (a double chance to see whether you get another double chance) is pretty lame.

Some outside clubs have hosted VAFA finals but are unlikely to do so again. Clayton hosted SFNL finals for a few years, missed out, then put in for VAFA D3 finals back in the late 00s. Whoever arranged it didn't know much about VAFA crowds: they catered for a SFNL-sized crowd (pie warmers full, great heaps of hot dog rolls by the boiler) and seemed surprised when the crowd was about that of a SFNL H&A reserves match (one or both of the sides were the lower section uni sides - either Swinburne or Latrobe - which didn't help). I can still see the club's ground manager surveying the tiny crowd with a look of total disbelief and disgust. At least the volunteers should have got a few free hot dogs.

 

[Penski]

Vermont has had Vafa finals before and was free, as is/was Blackburn. Both fenced and primo surfaces


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It should be the last straw to choose grounds with artificial pitches in the middle.

 

[Over The Post]

Has Vermont got proper goalposts now or are they still primary school height?

 

[SeaSide]

Apparently Westbourne with it's dual grounds offered to host this year...but would anyone want to travel west?

I would!

 

[Navyblues09]

Looking at the weather conditions out there today there’ll be a lot of curators happy to not have footy on their grounds today.

 

[hansie]

It should be the last straw to choose grounds with artificial pitches in the middle.

Reasonable shout penski. However it would appear the alternative (turf decks) is starting to work against the vafa. Both grounds I mentioned host efnl premier weekly - the best comp in metro Melbourne- they seem ok playing on them.

At least hadfield had the nice landscaped area around the ground to watch from without having to reward mediocrity and pay the useless vafa admin 17 shekels to watch one game (at 9.30am, ridiculous).

OTP Vermont was lengthened and widened this year and pretty sure the posts got raised to a reasonable height!


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[Over The Post]

Thanks Hansie. I only ever umpired one game there - D4 GF from memory - and it was a nightmare. Less "over the post" and more "shit was that in or out???"

 

[HumphreyBBear]

I missed you out at Hadfield yesterday, Hansie. Would have been nice to catch up. Maybe next week.

 

[God Yeah]

Was anyone at the U/19 Div 2 GF yesterday at La Trobe?

Free kick and 50m penalty after the siren to allow Uni Blues to kick the match winning goal and walk away with a 1 point win.