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Western Border Football League - 2021

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When discussing the plight of Heywood and I'll give myself up as a former Mortlake player, the old line from the Midnight Oil Classic - Read About It rings true for many;

"it's better to die on you feet, than to live on your knees"

I have no problem with what they tried to do last year and can't see any problem with the Akermania game this year.

In small towns and communities the footy club is the lifeblood. Take it away and you kill off part of the vibrancy an community spirit.

I am a long way away but I do not want to see Heywood become Mortlake Mark II - a town divided by 3-4 clubs all competing for support of the people. Mortlake's mistae was not dropping into the Mininera or Warrnambool & District Leagues as a stand alone club. Insted they tried to solier on - fashioned a merger with a club already in recess that it had no affiliation with and subsequently died.

It will take someone young ith vision to lead them down the right path to ensure the club survive and prospers.
 
when i originally heard about aker i was sceptical but the more i think about it, i am warming to the idea. it brings much needed excitement and if they are going to end up financially no worse then why not.

someone mentioned heywoods inability to keep senior players earlier in this post. forgive my ignorance, im from mt gambier, how badly is heywood suffering from the south west leagues taking players? how many clubs are within say 20 km? also, what is the population of heywood. ta
 
Ladder for end of year as we currently stand

portland
west
north
east
south
hamilton
millicent
casterton
imperials
heywood

whats happened to poor old rig gone of the face of the earth you old roo boy
 

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iknowstuffall said:
Ladder for end of year as we currently stand

portland
west
north
east
south
hamilton
millicent
casterton
imperials
heywood

whats happened to poor old rig gone of the face of the earth you old roo boy
Click to expand...

Think you got the ladder pretty much spot on. Top three could fall anyway. Rig has been pretty quiet maybe moved on.
 
iknowstuffall said:
Ladder for end of year as we currently stand

portland
west
north
east
south
hamilton
millicent
casterton
imperials
heywood

whats happened to poor old rig gone of the face of the earth you old roo boy
Click to expand...
the rig has gone m.i.a along with a few other vocal people over the pre season... i see portland play heywood this week, this could be a compelete embarrasment for the cellar dewllers.
 
rusty5 said:
when i originally heard about aker i was sceptical but the more i think about it, i am warming to the idea. it brings much needed excitement and if they are going to end up financially no worse then why not.

someone mentioned heywoods inability to keep senior players earlier in this post. forgive my ignorance, im from mt gambier, how badly is heywood suffering from the south west leagues taking players? how many clubs are within say 20 km? also, what is the population of heywood. ta
Click to expand...

Players going to SW is a fairly big issue, this year at least, in previous years though it was keeping the kids from to 18's for seniors for following years.

The bulk of Heywood leavers this year have gone to Heathmere, Tyrendarra and Branxholme, all being within 30km from Heywood. a few others have gone also to Westerns and Dartmoor which are also fairly close...

Being a leaver of Heywood myself (first leaving after under 18's around 06-07) I pretty much left for employment and there was no real attraction to stay at all(success-wise, well personally in this case).
 
rusty5 said:
when i originally heard about aker i was sceptical but the more i think about it, i am warming to the idea. it brings much needed excitement and if they are going to end up financially no worse then why not.

someone mentioned heywoods inability to keep senior players earlier in this post. forgive my ignorance, im from mt gambier, how badly is heywood suffering from the south west leagues taking players? how many clubs are within say 20 km? also, what is the population of heywood. ta
Click to expand...

Heywood is 20km inland from Portland with a population of approx 1000 people. If you do a simple subtraction equation you will see why it is difficult to have a competitive team year in year out. for example,

Of the 1000 people who live in Heywood, lets assume half a female.
1000 - 500 = 500.

Of the 500 males in Heywood, 450 are not aged between 18 -35yo
500 - 450 = 50

Of the remaining 50 males aged between 18-35yo, lets say 10 of them have no interest or are incapable of playing football
50 - 10 = 40

So at the start of each season this is what confronts Heywood. People say to develop the juniors or not 'recruit' in. Quite simply, the numbers don't support that blue print. We just dont have the population to do that.
 
kingofbighits said:
Heywood is 20km inland from Portland with a population of approx 1000 people. If you do a simple subtraction equation you will see why it is difficult to have a competitive team year in year out. for example,

Of the 1000 people who live in Heywood, lets assume half a female.
1000 - 500 = 500.

Of the 500 males in Heywood, 450 are not aged between 18 -35yo
500 - 450 = 50

Of the remaining 50 males aged between 18-35yo, lets say 10 of them have no interest or are incapable of playing football
50 - 10 = 40

So at the start of each season this is what confronts Heywood. People say to develop the juniors or not 'recruit' in. Quite simply, the numbers don't support that blue print. We just dont have the population to do that.
Click to expand...

The reason I say develop the juniors is: every year (apart from one not long ago) there is a heywood u18 team, usually a rather competitive one too. that means every 2-3 years there are kids around from the 18's, keen to play footy, available for seniors. and from that Heywood has only turned over 5 or 6 lately.
Personally from my 18's years there is only 4 max from my age group, where as at portland there are atleast 8-10 regulars in the seniors. part of the reason being that we would get asked to play seniors and turn it down cos we would get a quarter and a half in a 100 point loss..
 

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you may have left last year so why not leave it at that instead of bagging everyone out.i suppose you delt with your second head?people like you no one wants around a football club.all cheers to the people doing the hard yards at struggling clubs,keep up the good work.:thumbsu:
 
kingofbighits said:
Heywood is 20km inland from Portland with a population of approx 1000 people. If you do a simple subtraction equation you will see why it is difficult to have a competitive team year in year out. for example,

Of the 1000 people who live in Heywood, lets assume half a female.
1000 - 500 = 500.

Of the 500 males in Heywood, 450 are not aged between 18 -35yo
500 - 450 = 50

Of the remaining 50 males aged between 18-35yo, lets say 10 of them have no interest or are incapable of playing football
50 - 10 = 40

So at the start of each season this is what confronts Heywood. People say to develop the juniors or not 'recruit' in. Quite simply, the numbers don't support that blue print. We just dont have the population to do that.
Click to expand...

kobh you are a twit!!! if you had been around the club for the ransom era you would no that heywood tired to develop juniors for 2 seasons with no big recruits and in my opinion those players learned a hell of a lot from ransom although they lost alot of games. they had respect for the coach and each other, something that went out the window last season when YOUR mate sinclair moved into the coaching role. if the same core group from that era,(the likes of johnstone dunn gore gepp hann twins salior rose and more)were to still be at heywood this year they would be competitive against the likes of imps casterton and millicent.

i also agree with you on the under 18 players SHOWTIME with clubs like portland and hamilton playing 6 to 10 players in the seniors but i think they can nurse them in where is at heywood these kids are almost playing key roles insted of playing small roles?? your thoughts
 
showtime1090 said:
The reason I say develop the juniors is: every year (apart from one not long ago) there is a heywood u18 team, usually a rather competitive one too. that means every 2-3 years there are kids around from the 18's, keen to play footy, available for seniors. and from that Heywood has only turned over 5 or 6 lately.
Personally from my 18's years there is only 4 max from my age group, where as at portland there are atleast 8-10 regulars in the seniors. part of the reason being that we would get asked to play seniors and turn it down cos we would get a quarter and a half in a 100 point loss..
Click to expand...

ST I actually sympathise with you, I've been there but if the club is worth fighting for then it will be up to people like you to take the club to where it rightly needs to sit. Personally, from my limited knowledge that's probably the South West Footy League because as several of you have accurately acknowledged the town just haven't have the population to compete in what is at the minute a major league. You are better to have some club than no club at all or worse still one that everyone jumps off and splinters the community.

I for one will be going up to watch and hope Aker gets a touch up and i take my hat off to the Heywood FNC for having a real crack at trying to survive.

To do so in the WBFL you need to scour the AFL lists find a very experienced player - near the end and try and give him a career path. In the 70's and 80's it was easy - not so nowadays.

Some of you youngsters are not probably aware that in the late 70's and 80's virtually every WBFL and certainly all Hampden League clubs had ex VFL coaches. I recall being 7 or 8 (which is now 30 years ago) and watching the sky blue of the WBFL taking on the bottle green of the HFL in what was a quality game of footy featuring lots of good players.

Alas the explosion of cash in the AFL and the changes in society have meant that it just doesn't happen anymore.
 
west was in the same position and have been lucky that they juniors stayed and helped the club thru the tough time, heywood needs to raid the SWF as did south with the mdse and they will then get success
 
kick2me said:
kobh you are a twit!!! if you had been around the club for the ransom era you would no that heywood tired to develop juniors for 2 seasons with no big recruits and in my opinion those players learned a hell of a lot from ransom although they lost alot of games. they had respect for the coach and each other, something that went out the window last season when YOUR mate sinclair moved into the coaching role. if the same core group from that era,(the likes of johnstone dunn gore gepp hann twins salior rose and more)were to still be at heywood this year they would be competitive against the likes of imps casterton and millicent.

i also agree with you on the under 18 players SHOWTIME with clubs like portland and hamilton playing 6 to 10 players in the seniors but i think they can nurse them in where is at heywood these kids are almost playing key roles insted of playing small roles?? your thoughts
Click to expand...

If what you are saying is true, where are those juniors now??
I agree with what you are saying but my point is the size of Heywood town. Heywood juniors are pretty good mainly due that they are all still in school. Once they finish (age 19) most end up leaving for work or study at the bigger regional centres or Melbourne. Remember, Heywood has a business strip in town that stretches 300m.
Last years B&F had a part time job in the hardware store but has now gone on to bigger and better offers in Warnambool.
You can develop the kids but there is no guarantee that you'll keep them once they finish school.
 
diffdiff said:
you may have left last year so why not leave it at that instead of bagging everyone out.i suppose you delt with your second head?people like you no one wants around a football club.all cheers to the people doing the hard yards at struggling clubs,keep up the good work.:thumbsu:
Click to expand...

Amen to that!!!
 
kingofbighits said:
Heywood is 20km inland from Portland with a population of approx 1000 people. If you do a simple subtraction equation you will see why it is difficult to have a competitive team year in year out. for example,

Of the 1000 people who live in Heywood, lets assume half a female.
1000 - 500 = 500.

Of the 500 males in Heywood, 450 are not aged between 18 -35yo
500 - 450 = 50

Of the remaining 50 males aged between 18-35yo, lets say 10 of them have no interest or are incapable of playing football
50 - 10 = 40

So at the start of each season this is what confronts Heywood. People say to develop the juniors or not 'recruit' in. Quite simply, the numbers don't support that blue print. We just dont have the population to do that.
Click to expand...

Well this might throw your theory out of balance. The most successful club in the KNTFL is also one of the smallest towns - that being mundulla with a population of about 200. Sure the league is not as competeive but is still a strong league and they won 8 flags in a row all with local players and no-one got paid. The biggest town in the league has about 6000 people.
 
bulldogsbark said:
Well this might throw your theory out of balance. The most successful club in the KNTFL is also one of the smallest towns - that being mundulla with a population of about 200. Sure the league is not as competeive but is still a strong league and they won 8 flags in a row all with local players and no-one got paid. The biggest town in the league has about 6000 people.
Click to expand...

Wow, that is a pretty good effort from Mundulla, it must be a real footy mad town. If WBFL was amateur too and the players didnt get paid I think Heywood would very competitive too.
I think the higher levels you go up though the harder it is for the small towns to compete with the big towns with their big budgets.

With my theory of pure numbers, if you look at the socceroos, they have a very small pool to choose from and have to compete against nations where soccer is their number one sport and have much larger populations.
I guess that is where I was coming from.
 
kingofbighits said:
Heywood is 20km inland from Portland with a population of approx 1000 people. If you do a simple subtraction equation you will see why it is difficult to have a competitive team year in year out. for example,

Of the 1000 people who live in Heywood, lets assume half a female.
1000 - 500 = 500.

Of the 500 males in Heywood, 450 are not aged between 18 -35yo
500 - 450 = 50

Of the remaining 50 males aged between 18-35yo, lets say 10 of them have no interest or are incapable of playing football
50 - 10 = 40

So at the start of each season this is what confronts Heywood. People say to develop the juniors or not 'recruit' in. Quite simply, the numbers don't support that blue print. We just dont have the population to do that.
Click to expand...


i totally agree with u here mate. its no wonder heywood casterton and millicent cant compete with towns the size of theirs up against city clubs. heywoods never won one, millicent and the cats have won very little. population = success
 
rusty5 said:
i totally agree with u here mate. its no wonder heywood casterton and millicent cant compete with towns the size of theirs up against city clubs. heywoods never won one, millicent and the cats have won very little. population = success[/QUOT

Millicent's got 6000 people and nearly won a flag last year
Click to expand...
 

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Western Border Football League - 2021

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