Maher hurt his shoulder in finals, looked like a disclocation, so he might start at United and if the byes fall in place and they have chalcraft and cucinotta in, with a couple of recruits they could be a handful early in the year for sides to come up against
Echuca wouldn't have been strong in the VFL either so I'd say most guys with the Bullants this year would be decent in the GVFL.
Echucas top end were better than the bullants top end in my opinion last year
Watched Liam Mackie play against Echuca early in the season. He is in the top 3 or 4 at the bullants and was easily the best player on the field until he went off with a shoulder injury.
Mackie, Wilson and a couple of others are at the level and above. If they have recruited one of those they have a gun. Otherwise they are basically local players from the Northern FL.
Northern Football League and GVFL would be a pretty similar strength. GV Footy may be a better spectacle at times as they play on some small dog box grounds at times in the NFL with rough surfaces but player quality would be pretty similar. I don't watch the much VFL to form an opinion on the other part of your question.
Don’t think Echuca would beat Heidelberg or Bundoora in the nfnl and as for the Northern Bullants, they may have only won 3 games for the season but they would not come close to Preston imo big big step up from gvfl/nfnl to vfl All 22 players have to be strong
Agree with you Gypsum. NFL got some great talent but the small grounds just don't cut it out for me, watched a few NFL games this year and they were full of quality players but the brand of football wasn't enthralling to watch. Stoppage > Dump kick > Scrap > Stoppage > Throw in x3 > Scrap > Goal. Where as the GV is more free flowing and the ball movement is much much better thats for sure. Big grounds make a big difference thats for sure. Not to mention the weather, always sunnier and clearer up in the GV compared with Melbourne.
Sam Reid and Ben Reid was a B&F winner with Geelong VFL. Gus Byrne and Jack Evans are currently with Geelong VFL.
All class players and well and truly VFL quality, could add in a few more from Echuca who could make the jump to VFL.
These sort of comparisons get made from time to time but in reality the gap between a GV club and even the poorest VFL club is chalk and cheese. The bullants would cream Echuca. The gap is huge and you can’t draw any comparisons from results because they just don’t line up. They’re not equivalent. North would smash Casey too, despite how poor North were this year.
Never said Echuca would beat them! What I did say is that just because a player from the Bullants signed at Tat, it doesn't mean they are better than some of the talent already playing GV. The Bullants Bottom 10-15 players wouldn't get a game at other VFL clubs.
Horses for courses, bottom 10-15 would get a gig at Echuca thou that’s the difference
I reckon rochy will be higher than that
Echuca
What's happening at Mooroopna? Trengove and Dean Smith gone. Any other significant movement?
Trengove is still at Mooroopna picked up a couple of his mates as well from Barooga. I'd say they will be in the Finals mix again.
Couple of good Barooga players I've also heard.
Lucas caccavielo has also gone
Cats have lost smith (who only played a handful of games last year) and caccaviello, but have replaced them with brexstem from barooga, big Daniel Johnston barooga, McKenzie Cowley from Tongala and will have Nathan Drummond a fair bit because he won’t be playing the interstate VFL games. So I can’t see how they drop out of the finals after being a couple of goals away from a prelim this season. They’ll get more improvement from there impressive young locals, I can see them going very well in 2023.
Way too early for this but here goes at this stage,
Been some decent wraps on Cowley , be very interested to see how he goes at Mooroopna .
