Darebin Falcons

Not a lot of detail in this article, but apparently Darebin has serious funding issues, to the point that the future of the club's VFLW team may be in doubt:

https://www.afl.com.au/aflw/news/1415862/womens-footy-factory-under-thr…

The conclusion of the article hints at the possibility of an alignment with Richmond, who apparently want to get back into the VFLW after ending their VFLW alignment with Port Melbourne. From a Port Melbourne perspective I'm not particularly impressed with Richmond ending the VFLW alignment and now wanting to come back in (though I don't know any details of what went into the decision). But if this does happen (all the article says is that Darebin are "understood" to be "open to the idea" of such an alignment - but I did wonder if that appearing in an official AFL article means the AFL likes the idea), hopefully it works out for Darebin.

I do wonder whether a Richmond alignment with Darebin in the VFLW would cause problems for Preston. Darebin's future in the VFLW would be even more uncertain if Preston doesn't survive, given the current relation between the two clubs, while at the same time the grant for upgrading the lights for night training at Preston depended on their connection to Darebin since it had something to do with supporting women's sports. I was trying to figure out if the grant had already happened or not, and this was all I could find:

https://www.gedkearney.org.au/media-news/media-releases-cooper-news/del…

So Preston actually getting the grant may depend on Darebin continuing to use the Preston City Oval next season. I don't know whether an alignment with Richmond would preclude that.

It's a real shame for Darebin to be having such serious financial problems as they were showing improvement on the field. I'm still surprised they lost to Geelong in the last round, thereby missing out on finals - it was a close loss, so they likely would have won if Ange Gogos had been able to play that weekend, but unfortunately she wasn't.