AFL Canberra

[WCL]

The AFL canberra league is going from strength to strength. I went to the Eastlake V Quenbeyan gam e on the weekend and as I am not a supportew of these 2 clubs I didn't really have an intrest(my fav team is the Weston Creek Lions, hence the user name WCL). It was a great game and was played of a high standard, it was some of the best local footy I've seen apart from the SANFL, WAFL or VFL. There was a good crowd of around 1000 and by the end of it everyone had lost their voice, it was that good of a game, the final score was 113-100 in favour of Eastlake. At the 24min mark of the final term the tigers(Queanbeyan) were ahead, 100-94. Some brilliant individual efforts by some of the demons(Eastlake) players got them over the line. Footy is deffinatly on the rise in the nations capital. Maybe the Tassie AFL south league should take a leafout of the AFL Canberra's book, because they are certaintly getting it right.

[fabulousphil]

Good to hear, i have not lived in Canberra since moving west around 6 years ago but grew up in Canberra and played ACTAFL in the early 80s (debuted at 17, so im not that old), in those days the standard was quite high as well with players the calibre of Cowboy Neale, Sid Jackson, Paul Feltham and several others gracing the local comp.

Not sure whether the junior comp is as strong now as soccer is certainly big at the junior end ?.

I think the Canberra league will be the forerunner of a statewide comp involving some Sydney clubs, maybe central coast or Newcastle club and maybe another riverina club, any talk of that around town?.

[WCL]

the junior comp is OK(I play for Weston Creek U18s), it is very competitive and of a good standard. As for a statewide comp, nothing has been said yet, but I am sure thats what there trying to do, we have had Wagga and the Sydney Swans reserves playing for the past 3 years, thats when the standard improved dramatically. I have often thought about this but there may be to many teams, I think that the teams in this comp should be:

Canberra Clubs:
Belconnen
Quenbeyan
Ainslie
Eastlake
Weston Creek
Tuggeranong

Wagga
Central Coast (rep side)
South Coast (rep side)

Sydney Clubs:
North Shore
St George
Pennant Hills
Cambelltown
East Coast

Play the GF at Manuka and you will get 12000 for sure.

Any thoughts.

[fabulousphil]

Yep probably to many clubs, and i am not sure how many could afford travelling all over NSW....... Ainslie, Eastlake, Quenbeyan and possibly Belconnen could as the clubs seem to quite profitable (what i hear) Weston Creek not so sure and Tuggers doesn't even have a club from what i know(not sure now).

The Sydney clubs would find it difficult as i dont think many have licensed premises-read pokies.

AFL assistance would be needed to make a sucess of it, or Ainslie could pay for it :D good luck with your footy this year WCL.

By the way i used to play with West Canberra who merged with Belconnen around 10 years ago (i think) we had all the juniors and the club(pokies) while they had ....... well not a lot IMO but things have seemingly turned out alright ATM. ;)

[cos789]

At least they should have conferences were homes sides play each other twice and the others once . This way travel costs are greatly reduced , while still allowing for legitimate finals .

[Bomber Spirit]

I can't see the idea of the statewide comp getting off the ground - the travel costs would be prohibitive.
The ACTAFL's a fair bit stronger than the Sydney AFL, so the Swans reserves are now playing in that. Campbelltown also had a stint in the ACTAFL, but have been back in the Sydney comp and are going through a nighmare season this year.
How's the standards of the grounds in the ACTAFL? In the Sydney AFL a lot of our grounds are rock-hard dustbowls, and because of the water restrictions there's nothing that can be done about it.

[WCL]

The cost would be huge and everybody would have to get into it. The standard of ACTAFL grounds are very good, Manuka is the league Headquaters and is obviously up to AFL standard. Ainslie Oval, Greenway(Tuggeranong), Margret Donohue(Queanbeyan) are also in very good condition. Football Park(previous headquaters and Weston Creeks Home ground has been left to rot and would be a magnificent ground if the made the effort to fix it up). The standard of play is also excellent and the league is well managed and it should stay in the ACT, with the exception of possibly another Sydney team.

[cos789]

A state-wide competition is limited by the number of Sydney teams with good grounds and standards that can match canberra standards . However it's ironic that to keep the costs down , you need as many Sydney clubs as possible as this reduces the amount of travelling for the individual clubs because they are playing local clubs more often .At the moment every second game is an away game for the Swans .The addition of each Sydney team reduces this .

[cos789]

As stated before this concept has been around for a long time but has been out the normal team's grasp .Campletown did experiment with playing in Canberra . IMO it's time to try something a bit different .Something along the lines of clubs combining to form a regional team whilst retaining their own identity in the Sydney league . This would probably mean having only a small number of state games that didn't clash with SFL fixtures so that players could play both competitions .

[Deegle]

I played on the quenbeyan and manuka oval about 2 years ago as part of a vic rep side and theyre 2 of the best grounds i have EVER played on. Manukas facilities are unbelievable, they look just as good as the MCG or Telstra Dome changerooms.

[WCL]

Today's Matches:

Quenbeyan V Belconnen

Ainslie V Eastlake

Listening to QBNFM 96.7, The magpies are in front 107 to 54

[steviewonder36]

I'm sorry but I disagree with the original post.

The ACTAFL is not as good as you might think. I came to Canberra in 1981 and followed the league (played for and supported Tuggers) since then until recent years.

Apart from the rise of Belconnen in recent years, the same teams battle it out for the finals every year.

Tuggeranong and Weston Creek show no signs of rising from the bottom of the ladder where both have sat for the past 5 years or so.

From what i have seen and know, both Tuggeranong and Weston Creek have no money or licenced premises to support them.

The result is that both teams rely on the Juniors for players, unfortunately the Juniors don't seem to stay with the clubs, certainly in Tuggeranong's case, hence why the are constantly rebuilding their list to be even remotely competitive.

[WCL]

Tuggeranong might not, but Weston Creek sure does. The labor club has jumped on board and provided us with a licenced Football club house which doubles up as the Weston Creek labor club and Weston Creek bowling and cricket clubs. Last year we showed a lot of promise but we lost a lot of our confidence when after leading by 11 goals half-way through the 3rd quater against Queanbeyan(Last years grand finalists), we ended up getting beaten by 2pts. Our under 18s team is a good one and is full of very loyal Weston Creek boys, that will be looking to play seniors this year and years to come. Our reserves team is only one game out of the 4(then again so are the other 5 teams). next year with the help of some interstate recruits, we will be a force to be reckoned with. The game in the ACT as a whole is doing quite well.

Weston Creek Will Kill the Hawks today at Footy Park.

[Portmagpies]

Canberra footy just hasn't been the same since the unfortunate demise of the (not so) mighty Wombats.

[3rd Grade Maggy]

Belconnen was formed from the merger of West Canberra and Belconnen. West Canberra did bring the money through the social club but Belconnen provided the history with the initial ACT competition through alignment with Turner/Acton, hence the use of Acton jumpers in the heritage round earlier this year.
Alignment is going well so far, produces 6 teams on the park each week (Seniors, Reserves, U18's, Womens and Two Canberra District Social Teams) all of whom have been spoiled for success in the past 5 or so years.

ACTAFL is a very strong league at the moment - stronger than the majority of the Victorian leagues definately. The money that flows through the pokies is definately the major reason, allowing clubs to recruit players from the better country leagues, thereby weakening their standard and strengthening ours. The fact that Ainslie can have two ex AFL players running around, along with a lot of other high priced recruits says that something needs to be done re a salary cap or points system though.

At present Tuggeranong and Weston Creek are getting pumped every week because they don't have the funds to compete with the pokie backed clubs (yes I know Labor Club finds Weston Creek but they don't attract players of quality). A system whereby recruits are given a points value out of 10 (determined by ACT Canberra) would be a good start. A team would then have a weekly value that they could not go above. Clubs would then be encouraged to play junior players as they would have zero point value (in my system.)

The state league is a nice idea but in reality will never work. Travel distances and funding issues are the main issues but there are numerous other reasons why it would struggle to get off the ground. Even the Villi's Cup which was pretty much statewide for the past few years reverted back to just a Canberra Comp this year.

Right. There's a bit to chew on for a bit - nice first post really.

Up with those third grade maggies!!!

PS - Wombats were great. We have a few of those boys playing with us now ... they go alright but dominate the end of season trip away every year!!

[fabulousphil]

Originally posted by 3rd Grade Maggy
Belconnen was formed from the merger of West Canberra and Belconnen. West Canberra did bring the money through the social club but Belconnen provided the history with the initial ACT competition through alignment with Turner/Acton, hence the use of Acton jumpers in the heritage round earlier this year.
Alignment is going well so far, produces 6 teams on the park each week (Seniors, Reserves, U18's, Womens and Two Canberra District Social Teams) all of whom have been spoiled for success in the past 5 or so years.

ACTAFL is a very strong league at the moment - stronger than the majority of the Victorian leagues definately. The money that flows through the pokies is definately the major reason, allowing clubs to recruit players from the better country leagues, thereby weakening their standard and strengthening ours. The fact that Ainslie can have two ex AFL players running around, along with a lot of other high priced recruits says that something needs to be done re a salary cap or points system though.

At present Tuggeranong and Weston Creek are getting pumped every week because they don't have the funds to compete with the pokie backed clubs (yes I know Labor Club finds Weston Creek but they don't attract players of quality). A system whereby recruits are given a points value out of 10 (determined by ACT Canberra) would be a good start. A team would then have a weekly value that they could not go above. Clubs would then be encouraged to play junior players as they would have zero point value (in my system.)

The state league is a nice idea but in reality will never work. Travel distances and funding issues are the main issues but there are numerous other reasons why it would struggle to get off the ground. Even the Villi's Cup which was pretty much statewide for the past few years reverted back to just a Canberra Comp this year.

Right. There's a bit to chew on for a bit - nice first post really.

Up with those third grade maggies!!!

PS - Wombats were great. We have a few of those boys playing with us now ... they go alright but dominate the end of season trip away every year!!

Agree with most of your post except the bit about Belconnen bringing the history........When i played juniors with West Canberra it was originally called West Canberra/Acton, then just West Canberra from the early 70s, Belconnen FC was originally Turner FC and when the new suburbs of Beconnen were built moved out to what was called the shed at Macquarie(Jamison shops).

By rights the Belconnen FC licensed premises should be where the rugby club at Jammo is and just as big, but alas bad management etc etc etc led it to attempt to join with West Canberra.

From memory the Acton FC closed its doors several years ago its playing days long ago over, it lost a lot of its territory under the lake.