R.I.P. Football Victoria

[the claw]

what i find interesting is the amount of time interstate clubs spend bottoming out and how many bottom 4 finishes they have.
wce have missed finals just 3 times and have had 2 bottom 4 finishes in 2000 and 2001 this is the longest sequence they have missed finals.have they ever really bottomed out.
adelaide have finished bottom 4 just once in 1999 their longest period without finals action is 3 yrs 94 95 and 96 they have missed finals 8 times but on 3 occasions only just missed.have they ever really bottomed out after establishing themselves in their early yrs i think not.
port have missed finals 4 times since their inception they one bottom 4 finish and their longest sequence of missed finals is 2 yrs,
fremantle well they are the exceptionthey have been abysmally run and started with a virtual wafl team their first five or 6 yrs were always going to be bad they have started with the lowest base of any team except maybe brisbane. if reasonably run and coached i cant see them slipping out side the 8 for long periods like melbourne clubs do. it took rfc 12 yrs to win its first flag freo are not there yet but are now in the vicinity .
after all this what am i trying to say well i have no idea.

 

[Boyanich]

Richmond, Collingwood, Essendon & Melbourne remain in Melbourne with Essendon & Collingwood playing out of Telstra.

Geelong at Geelong.

Hawthorn to Tasmania (Launceston)

Carlton to Canberra.

Bulldogs to Darwin.

Kangaroos to Cararra.

Saints to Sydney.

 

[poppa x]

Insterstate clubs never really bottom out because of the draw.  They all have 11 genuine home ground advantage games and even a totally dud club will win 6-8 of those.

For comparison here's RFC "Genuine" home ground advantage games in 2006:

Round 19 Sydney at the G
Round 22 WCE at the G

All our other "home" games were played against other Vic clubs or at the Dome.

ITS THE DRAW - WHEN WILL THE AFL MORONS WALE UP?

 

[TOT70]

Victorian clubs have been slow learners over the last few years, esp the "Big 4."

I have several friends who barrack for Carlton.  They have been very despondent over the last few years, as you might expect.  Occasionally, I have made a patronising comment like: "Well at least you have good, young players like Betts, Murphy, Kennedy etc."   Surprisingly, they don't rate any of these players as being any good.  They are used to having ready made recruits walk into the side and dominate from day one, like Williams, Kernahan, Bradley etc did.

Look at Essendon.  They are talking about topping up and giving Hird one last shot.  At what?

Our long history of delusions of grandeur since the seventies is well-documented.

There is the problem.  Victorian clubs took shortcuts, cheated and poached players from other clubs for years.  No hard yards for us and in the old days all it cost was money.  

Even StKilda, the team with a three or four year dig at early picks has hardly recruited a new player for a couple of years now.  They have a Plan A-that's it. Meanwhile, the team with the best midfield in the league has gradually introduced the next wave of midfielders in Waters, Butler and co.

The interstaters have done the hard yards recently-the Victorians have never done them.  That's all.  

 

[Skills]

Our long history of delusions of grandeur since the seventies is well-documented.

There is the problem.  Victorian clubs took shortcuts, cheated and poached players from other clubs for years.  No hard yards for us and in the old days all it cost was money.  

Excellent point TOT70. This is what killed Richmond for many years after the 82 GF. You're past success gurantee's you nothing.

 

[GoodOne]

Many good points but I still find it hard to believe that 10 Victorian-based clubs have managed to get it all wrong, and 6 non-Victorian clubs are getting it all right. Doesn't this seem just that bit coincidental? Much of the successful influence in the northern states has come from Victorian-based personnel. Personally I dont subscribe to this theory that ALL Victorian clubs are living on the past. I firmly believe influences outside the control of Victorian clubs is what has created this very obvious inequality in performance.

 

[CarnTheTiges]

Besides which it's been discounted that two Victorian teams have been involved in premierships recently. South Melbourne and Fitzroy.

Are they based in Victoria? No. They're not Victorian teams, they USED to be and the Liars link is extremely tenuous. Although it is nice to see people dropping off them at a great rate of knots.

 

[craig]

Our recruiting is just not as good as the others for mine.

With the extra cash to employ more recruiters the Interstaters have their eyes well and truly on the Vic under 18s but also have extensive networks interstate that Victorian Clubs cannot match ie Kangas.

Better facilities better administration and more specialst staff, along with distinct home ground advantages for half of their games that Vic clubs no longer have.

Interstate sides are much more comfy playing at Telstra or MCG now cos they play here more often than Vic clubs play over there which is another advantage.

 

[MalenyTiger]

To me the issue has two main causes:
1. Interstate clubs have more money (through memberships, sponsorships, salary cap concessions, etc) which has been spent on better facilities, more rookies, more staff for recruiting and other "cutting edge" technologies such as sydney's soft -tissue injury reduction techniques that they got from visiting an Italian soccer club. It's intersting that Sydney have had the most consistent list of players who have played all games in the past two years - coincidental? No way, they have more $$$ to spend on getting the best out of their players.
2. Home ground advantage - enough has already been said about this but fair dinkum where's the advantage of us playing a home game against St Kilda at Telstra Dome?!? It is so biased against Melbourne based clubs. The travel factor used to disdvantage interstae clubs until they were able to develop routines to reduce the ill-effect on players. Apart from Freo all the interstate clubs seem to have adapted to overcome this problem, and it looks like freo have finally arrived... Home ground advantage is linked to the draw and the inequities that it produces. However, until there are less clubs in the competition this will always be so... Home gound advantage is also linked to the poor standard of umpiring as the parochial crowd usually gets there way.

 

[Gordietiger]

This is about money and home ground advantage. Look at us-we struggle to finance an adequate football department -let alone a rookie list of 2 or 3. Some of these interstate teams get the corporate dollar we can only dream of-they use this money to fund a football department/budget that is double what is available to us in terms of recruitment and coaching. They have the luxury of drafting up to 6 rookies from local competitions who want to stay home and we cant afford to house them in Melbourne. THEN -when Finals come around they have the home ground advantage that Melbourne teams can only dream of---ie why should St Kilda have played their first final last week finishing higher than Melbourne at the MCG-away from their home ground at the dome--and as much as I dislike the Cats-----they will never play a home final ever ever ever-how is that a fair and even way to do things??
It Sux

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

...
I find it absolutely laughable that Ron Barassi of all people is calling for a summit to investigate the state of the Victorian clubs and the fact that he believes there is a problem. Ron, for years you spruiked the non Victorian line, you helped create this lopsided situation. The last thing Victorian clubs need is the help of Ron 'I'll buy a Premiership' Barassi.

Here here, vividly recall the day in 1989 that Barassi (with his national competition hat on) said "it would be good for football" if Richmond fell by the wayside.

Some very interesting viewpoints expressed on this thread. Maybe it's too hard to nail the reason down to one or two factors.

 

[mexican_radio]

I respect the insight many of you have into the politics and business of the game, your hypothesis on why this situation has developed may be spot on. My point though is that it doesn't matter why, it's the reality that has hit home and I hate to see it (non Victorian clubs winning everything) and it turns me off watching AFL.

I can't fix the problem and actually I don't care about the backroom politics of it all. I used to follow a VICTORIAN team called Richmond FC playing in the VFL. Somehow that experience has been taken away and replaced with fabricated purple teams that I couldn't give a flying fart about.

oh man I could go on about this all night. I don't care why this has happened, I just know that I HATE it. No finals in Mebourne for 2 weeks, nobody left to barrack for, no team representing the heart land. And you know what, it will probably happen again next year too.