Forum topic

The motivation would be $$ as part of the deal and exposure to a very young and fast growing municipality. For a club with a small supporter base tapping into that community has been a strategic move, getting their players front and centre with a lot of potential supporters through the various aspects of the deal.

Will be interesting to see what they decide once they go to Caulfield, but if I was them I'd want to maintain some form of presence.

Casey have been playing out of Cranbourne for many years now in its various guises and never seem to attract much of a crowd so i wonder how effective their penetration is into that market - i only see a decent crowd there when the AFLW is playing and maybe that will move to Caulfield as well - interesting times ahead for the old Springvale mob 

The VFL side is a pretty small part of it, it's more about the exposure of the AFL players to that community via camps and other programs.

I know Melbourne supporters are often wrongly stereotyped but i wonder if the MFC have picked up many additional members or sponsors from that area - maybe if they get into the schools there may be benefits down the track    

Yeah that's their plan. They signed a 30-year community partnership deal with Casey council involving school visits, community programs, business engagement etc etc and are about half way through it.

I heard an interview on SEN last week with Kate Roffey and she was asked what would happen to the Casey alignment when Melbourne move to Caulfield, and she said the current arrangement would 'absolutely' continue. I know they tell a few porkies when it suits them, but she sounded convincing.

I'm.one of the few to like the competition as is due to the extra exposure, the better crowds and the string belief that under the right circumstances stand alone sides can win the competition however if their was to be a split in the competition ild start off with a 10 team competition, 18 rounds - if clubs seem to be able to cope financially ild suggest adding additional sides.

One very important re introduction ild like to see is reserves return to the competition, at present having players play elsewhere and not your seconds side  makes development a tough task. 

To sweeten the competition and increase interest for both the public and media ild also include regional sides - the expected decline in standards due to no AFL clubs could see regional sides who were once defeated heavily once again become competitive. 

Ild have the following 10 sides

PORT MELBOURNE,

Williamstown,

Preston,

Werribee,

Coburg,

Frankston, 

Box Hill,

A representative side from Bendigo,

Fitzroy - I like the suggestion AJ and something that left me bewildered when thinking why they didn't join the competition after exiting the VFL. The potential interest they could bring is huge

And North Ballarat - so that I can gloat to Digs when Port beats them by triple figures like the good old days  😀

Top 4 finals series, week 1 1 v 2 winner straight to final, 3 v 4 loser eliminated

Week 2, loser of 1 v 2 v winner of 3 v 4 - for a place in the GF

Week 3 - GRAND FINAL !!!

There are admittedly some AFL clubs that can draw good crowds for reserves games. If anything did go right for Frankston the day we played Collingwood, it was the gate revenue from the amount of Pies fans in attendance (although I'm less than fond of us being outnumbered on our own turf.) And if every AFL reserves side drew crowds like that it would be great, but unfourtunately that's not the case. Collingwood, although they get good crowds, sitll play some of their games at the AIA centre which from what I've seen has no facilities for specators. Same with North Melbourne playing at Arden St - nothing more than an office building with a footy oval next to it. They don't even provide toilet facilities for specators, so God help you if the sports complex next door is closed and you can't use their bathrooms. The image of the VFL suffers when many clubs don't even treat it as a real event and give no considerations to crowds. If Arden St had a wall around it, would North Melbourne even bother opening the gates to let people watch? 

For this competition to ever work in its current format, I think you would need to do the following; 

- Encourage the AFL clubs to treat it as a worthy competition in its own right, not just a player development league. With reserves teams already playing at their club's traditional home grounds, how about lean into the tribalism and hearken back to the old days when these clubs genuinely represented the suburbs they're named after? Bring these grounds up to standard for spectators, put more effort toward marketing games, actually treat it as an event with importance and try to create an exciting atmosphere. 

- Introduce some form of aid to struggling clubs, particularly the standalones. A hybrid of semi-professional suburban clubs and AFL teams is going to be inherently unbalanced and difficult for standalone clubs to thrive in. It's a lot to ask a bunch of semi-professionals with day jobs (including tradies putting in full weeks of physical labour) to go up against full-time footballers who have access to superior training facilities and whose job it is to be the best athletes they can possibly be. Especially when they're getting paid less than what they could make playing local footy. So raise the salary cap and at the very least step in and help lift these clubs up when they're struggling. I think it's only fair for the AFL to look after the clubs that feed recruits into its competition. 

And in the long term, get the interstate clubs out of the VFL. A semi-professional competition is just not feasible across multiple states, and it leads to some garbage timeslots interstate teams are flown in and out on the same day. I'm sure those players would rather be playing in their home states as well? So figure out whatever needs to be done for those clubs to play within their own states and let the VFL be an actual state league again. 

Hi Mega,

Great to see you still have your anti bias against the Roosters.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

The Roosters were NEVER defeated by Port by triple figures as you have stated.

The only triple figure result i can find is when in 2006 the roosters defeated Port by 119 Points.

The only result that I care about is a 45 Point win 2008 Grand Final, a result that still lays in your guts to this day & I"m afraid you will have to take to your grave with you.

Cheers

Have a nice Christmas.

That's just another runners up amongst 21 seasons, one of many, we care little.

You have a great Christmas, ild ask you to post me your address so that I can send you some Port Melbourne merchandise but I worry it may send you in a state of despair realising that you have turned your back on the greatest club in the competitions history only to follow one that's no longer in the comp !!@

HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!