Stand-alone push will kill tribal rivalry: Cleary
Brent Diamond
July 31, 2011
VETERAN VFL commentator Phil Cleary says the ''tribal rivalry'' that is so crucial to Victorian football will disappear, with Carlton and Essendon set to field their own teams in the competition from next season.
Cleary believes the latest change, in which Carlton will virtually field its own VFL team as the Northern Blues, effectively wiping out Preston's relevance, is only a minor blemish compared to when the AFL renamed the Victorian Football Association the VFL and introduced alignments.
Effectively, he says, it's now an AFL development and reserves competition.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/standalone-push-will-kill-tribal-…
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Interesting to note that the article says that "With most of the remaining AFL alignments likely to end in 2014, AFL Victoria has given VFL clubs three years in order to help fund their own stand-alone teams in the VFL, joining Port Melbourne and Frankston."
Time to bring in two conferences in the VFL with the following make-up:
VFA:
Port Melbourne
North Ballarat
Sandringham
Frankston
Werribee
Coburg
Casey
Williamstown
Bendigo
AFL:
Collingwood
Essendon
Northern Blues
Footscray
Box Hill Hawks
Geelong
Melbourne
Richmond
St Kilda
Agree with the 2 conferences. Run it like NEAFL
Would like to see Preston in the VFA conference or at the very least in the NFL.
Preston Football Club should continue to exist in its own right. If that means at a lower level than so be it. No other VFL club has an U19 team in the VAFA but Northern Bullants do which clearly shows they are committed to community football to me.