VAFA General Discussion

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The Victorian Government should be following the lead of Western Australia. In WA, you cannot travel between regions at the moment there (Perth/Peel, South West, Great Southern, Pilbara, Goldfields, Kimberleys, etc.) except for essential purposes and the numbers are currently showing that that is working.

In a Victorian example, Melbournians wouldn't be able to go out out of town and people from Gippsland, Goulburn Valley, etc. can't leave their region. They can only travel if it is for essential work purpose.

Talk is that in some WA regions, country football could be well set for a July start due to the reduced chances of the virus spreading which could make it officially safe to resume normal activities. The Goldfields and Esperance leagues have four clubs and have a good chance of a minimum 6 round season (two full home and away rounds) instead of their usual 20 and 15 round seasons respectively - something is better than nothing. A couple of other leagues who also have less reliance on Perth-based players have a chance of starting if cases continue to remain low.

I don't think the WAFL, the Amateurs and Peel leagues have as good a chance of starting as they are where the higher population density is.

Unfortunately, while people in Victoria are able to travel freely around the state, the spread will not reduce swiftly enough and will delay the resumption of sport statewide.
 

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Correct. I hear the new boss is a good operator , but has his work cut out with the rabble.
In fairness ,Bedders, it is a much better run comp than in its dark days and it was a former Monder president who dragged it out of the mire and set it on the right track.

Can't blame any club for not wanting to have to pack a picnic lunch to play a game of footy.
 

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Good article has appeared on the ABC website, taken from something on Offsiders.

Edited highlights, with a few thoughts:
So the loss of overall revenue generated through media rights, sponsorship and gate receipts will have a profound impact on how much support will be provided to suburban leagues and clubs. Consequently, the likely sporting depression will provide a test of the priorities and the commitment of administrators to the most important level of sport — the community base that props up the sporting pyramid.
The VAFA gets bugger all from the AFL as it is. Because they don't see it as "the most important level of sport", even though it is.

At local level a flattened economy will have an immediate impact on community clubs that typically rely on sponsorship from the kind of small businesses — such as pubs, restaurants and real estate agents — that have taken the biggest financial hits.
Very true, and going to be a massive problem for all clubs, amateur or otherwise. I have always wondered just how much economic benefit (increased business) sponsors get for their money. If sponsors haven't been seeing any actual benefit to themselves (i.e., they've just been writing the money off as charity / goodwill), then they are very likely to drop it.

The explosion in entry-level and early-age junior participation has also created a steady stream of revenue for many clubs and, in some cases, a heavy reliance on junior memberships to fund overall operations.
Yes, which threatens to open up a fault line within 'multi-purpose' / 'federated' clubs, where sports are played under separate committees (i.e., auskick, junior footy, senior footy). I gather that there is already resentment at some clubs where junior footy makes money and senior footy loses it - rightly or wrongly, the junior footy committee resents being used as a cash cow. This comes back to the purpose of junior footy - is it to produce senior players, or is it a stand-alone in its own right? Clubs are going to have to resolve this somehow.

Will parents hard hit by the depressed economy continue to pay? Will kids return after a gap season in which they have formed an even greater bond with — you might say addiction to —their PlayStations and iPhones?
The most important bit of the article. This is going to be the biggest problem, imo, especially with the most recent ex-U19s (those who played their last year of U19 footy in 2019, or would have done so in 2020). Getting teens to make the transition to senior footy is always a problem, with many electing to give it away at this level. Having a gap year will make it even worse. Any club with any sense will be staying in contact with their U19s, but what is good for each individual club may not be what is best for footy as a whole. The clubs will concentrate on retaining their stars (that is, making sure they don't go to other clubs), which is understandable enough. But these kids aren't the problem: kids who are good at footy usually love it, and are pretty sure to return (no matter what club they are at). It is the middle-of-the-range blokes, those who would have normally been 50-60% likely to go on to senior footy but might only be 30-40% likely to do so now, who are the issue. These kids will never be stars, but they make fringe players in the seniors of the premier sides, solid contributors in the seniors of the divisional sides, and are the mainstays of the reserves at every club. If these become a mini 'lost generation', footy is going to have a very big hole in it.

Will senior players who already struggled to come up with their subs — or even be able to pay them — return?
Very legitimate question, though hitting the clubs from poorer areas harder.

Most pertinently, will the governing bodies enjoying a generational benefit from the current participation boom fund their own form of stimulus package to help clubs ensure the now cash-strapped and disadvantaged can still play?
Ya gotta be kidding, unfortunately.
...
Another key funding question for community clubs is whether government grants for infrastructure promised (and in some cases misappropriated) before the pandemic struck can still be delivered given the billions of taxpayer dollars allocated to wage relief and other emergency initiatives.
The provision of female change rooms has been a key focus of government grants, given the enormous growth in girl's and women's cricket, football and Australian rules particularly. The best hope might be that grants can still be justified in order to provide stimulus for the building industry.
We can only hope.

Inevitably even the most prosperous local clubs will find themselves asking similar questions to their professional counterparts: Do they need to pay as much for that half-back or recruit the ex-first grade batsman who might have helped win a premiership?
Not such an issue for the VAFA. Might free up some quality players to play amateurs, but is more likely to show just how many play purely for money.

This might not be such a bad thing for those clubs who have been caught up in the inflated premiership-chasing cash-in-hand economy that distorts the raison d'etre of some even supposedly "amateur" clubs.
Will refrain from commenting. Doubtless others will have something to say.

But during the hiatus it is the simple absence of the gathering of weekend tribes that will be felt most, particularly in those country towns where the people you see at the footy on Saturday afternoon might be the only ones you see all week. For now, the new scoreboard near my house merely creates an impatience for the days when its numbers will, like the faces in front of the old grandstand, light up.
And to that, all of us can relate.
 
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How many of the school boys clubs would be reliant on funds from the school to operate? All private schools, particularly those reliant on international students could see their revenue topple and will be doing well to keep hold of teaching staff and maintain facilities so the extra cash thrown towards the old boys football club will be an extremely low priority.
 
How many of the school boys clubs would be reliant on funds from the school to operate? All private schools, particularly those reliant on international students could see their revenue topple and will be doing well to keep hold of teaching staff and maintain facilities so the extra cash thrown towards the old boys football club will be an extremely low priority.
OIGFC rely more on the school maintaining the grounds thus reducing our rent (council grounds) than any money from the school.
 
Absolutely none.
Perhaps not entirely reliant, but I think you might find St Kevies helped out with the development at the 'King'. Or at least a trust associated with the school did. And I think those involved with the better connected schools benefit from the association jobs wise.

Flanker28 ?
 
Perhaps not entirely reliant, but I think you might find St Kevies helped out with the development at the 'King'. Or at least a trust associated with the school did. And I think those involved with the better connected schools benefit from the association jobs wise.

Flanker28 ?
Of course they do and the massive networks.
 
Is it finally time for some optimism? Just two cases in the last 24 hours. Apparently we now have less than 190 people with CV-19 in a state of 6 million people and far more people have recovered than are now being treated. Some country areas have had zero cases or the handful they have had have now fully recovered. Not saying we just throw open the gates and go back to the way things were but have we almost reached a tipping point where the economic and mental health impact is now almost worse the substantive disease

Heard today that AFL Gippsland genuinely think they can start in late May. Maybe not the major leagues but the minors as they are almost entirely made up of locals and the impact to country towns not having local sport is substantial, especially on the back of the bushfires. I think late May that is a real stretch but they want to provide some hope and I applaud their optimism.

I know there are plenty of arguments against and I respect those but maybe it is time to at least start having the conversation about when rather than if.
 
Is it finally time for some optimism? Just two cases in the last 24 hours. Apparently we now have less than 190 people with CV-19 in a state of 6 million people and far more people have recovered than are now being treated. Some country areas have had zero cases or the handful they have had have now fully recovered. Not saying we just throw open the gates and go back to the way things were but have we almost reached a tipping point where the economic and mental health impact is now almost worse the substantive disease

Heard today that AFL Gippsland genuinely think they can start in late May. Maybe not the major leagues but the minors as they are almost entirely made up of locals and the impact to country towns not having local sport is substantial, especially on the back of the bushfires. I think late May that is a real stretch but they want to provide some hope and I applaud their optimism.

I know there are plenty of arguments against and I respect those but maybe it is time to at least start having the conversation about when rather than if.
Well said , it will be July
 

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