VFL Our VFL team - whats the future?

[Pykie]

An actual NMFC Reserves side is a must.

It gives us a cohesive pathway to achieve success in the most important aspect for the club....a Senior team premiership.

The flow on effects in terms of supporter growth, financial growth and long term sustainability is a complete no brainer as far as that is concerned.

A fractured Reserves would be a huge step backwards in achieving that goal & if it comes down to an either or with an AFLW side, then it's a no contest afaic.

Spot on.

It should be the single biggest priority of the club during this crisis.

No other initiative, medico, training programme, sponsor, facility etc has a bigger chance of taking us towards onfield success than our own side.

Not having one is only going to stagnate on field success and be an absolute detriment to sponsorship and offield sustainability, purely because of how good the side is on the field.

IF anything not having our own VFL side makes relocation a viable topic again, as we appear extremely weak....

 

[Pykie]

Fair question.

If it was available I'd happily tip in extra if it meant helping to keep us in the main game.

Everyone would!

If they turned around and were honest with the members and said we needed $600k to help keep the VFL alive in 2021 and started a funding drive, we would get it done inside of a week........

 

[Grogg]

Spot on.

It should be the single biggest priority of the club during this crisis.

No other initiative, medico, training programme, sponsor, facility etc has a bigger chance of taking us towards onfield success than our own side.

Not having one is only going to stagnate on field success and be an absolute detriment to sponsorship and offield sustainability, purely because of how good the side is on the field.

IF anything not having our own VFL side makes relocation a viable topic again, as we appear extremely weak....

As a pragmatist I can't disagree with any of that.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Everyone would!

If they turned around and were honest with the members and said we needed $600k to help keep the VFL alive in 2021 and started a funding drive, we would get it done inside of a week........

Would such a thing "distract" other priorities?

 

[Mav]

Scrap all VFL teams that have an AFL side. Push the draft age back by 4 months each year until it hits 21.
Drop AFL list sizes.
Kids can be developed in the local leagues, and it would create immense interest in them. AFL sides can have 35 guys ready to play AFL.

 

[Passmore]

Fair question.

If it was available I'd happily tip in extra if it meant helping to keep us in the main game.

I suspect a lot pf people would Grogg. That's the disappointing part.

On the AFL membership renewel, have a box on there for a VFL membership. Have categories of maybe $50, $100, $200 or whatever. If10k of our 40k membership decided to kick in we part way there. How ******* hard is it?

 

[Pykie]

Scrap all VFL teams that have an AFL side. Push the draft age back by 4 months each year until it hits 21.
Drop AFL list sizes.
Kids can be developed in the local leagues, and it would be immense interest in them. AFL sides can have 35 guys ready to play AFL.

It's not going to happen.

They are moving towards an eastern seaboard reserves comp, like the Northern clubs have wanted for years.

What the Northern clubs want, the Northern clubs get. They wanted their academies in the Nab League, they got that to.

There's going to be a scenario where the Victorian state leagues of both reserves levels and u/18 levels are directly developing players who the Northern sides have complete priority access to inside of the next few years. The Acadmies aren't developing them, they are running training for them on a Tuesday and Thursday. The highest standard of competition will be turning those sides into basically their own NAB League quality feeder sides. They will be playing the very best academy players in their reserves side, now not against NEAFL spuds, but full VFL outfits. It absolutely stinks.

It seems we are the only one in this situation, St Kilda who is financial way more ****ed than us has Sandringham and we've heard nothing of the Dogs needing to wind up their VFL side.

 

[Grogg]

I suspect a lot pf people would Grogg. That's the disappointing part.

On the AFL membership renewel, have a box on there for a VFL membership. Have categories of maybe $50, $100, $200 or whatever. If10k of our 40k membership decided to kick in we part way there. How ******* hard is it?

Not that hard.

Surely we've considered the option at board level already, but if we haven't it might be time to hit the club with a few emails with the suggestion.

 

[Mr north man]

Everyone would!

If they turned around and were honest with the members and said we needed $600k to help keep the VFL alive in 2021 and started a funding drive, we would get it done inside of a week........

Yes correct in what your saying the membership would help raise but your talking about the North board as it was your idea it won’t work now think about it why wouldn’t the board want a VFL side unless the deal with another group has been done to help further the business interest of North Board members

 

[Hojuman]

Scrap all VFL teams that have an AFL side. Push the draft age back by 4 months each year until it hits 21.
Drop AFL list sizes.
Kids can be developed in the local leagues, and it would create immense interest in them. AFL sides can have 35 guys ready to play AFL.

Great idea KT. but never would l see the Richmond's & Collingwood's of this world agreeing to that.

This one going to be a bun-fight around the AFL table when it happens.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Not that hard.

Surely we've considered the option at board level already, but if we haven't it might be time to hit the club with a few emails with the suggestion.

Do the board fear it would it draw funds away from the AFLW?

 

[Pykie]

I suspect a lot pf people would Grogg. That's the disappointing part.

On the AFL membership renewel, have a box on there for a VFL membership. Have categories of maybe $50, $100, $200 or whatever. If10k of our 40k membership decided to kick in we part way there. How ******* hard is it?

According to Coburg's 2019 financial report, it cost $829k to run the club.

75% of the players in the North VFL side are under the AFL sides TPP whether they are playing or not, so the wage bill would be much lower than a non-aligned VFL side.

Running costs would be alot higher however, again though there is cross utilisation with the AFL side, development coaches split their time with the AFL side and the VFL side, membership and admin departments work for the AFL side to.

So direct costs can't be much more than those Coburg costs.

Like you said, 10k members at $50 covers well over half of the costs and that's without any sponsorship deals of what is very likely going to be a televised eastern seaboard reserves comp.

It makes absolutely no sense a concept as important as this, that consumes 1.7% of our total turnover, can't be retained.

 

[Passmore]

Not that hard.

Surely we've considered the option at board level already, but if we haven't it might be time to hit the club with a few emails with the suggestion.

I think that might be a good idea, Grogg. I did hit Heath up on Twitter a while back, but got no response.

I think I know what I'll be doing today. Sorry, place of employment, hold my calls...

 

[Mav]

It's not going to happen.

They are moving towards an eastern seaboard reserves comp, like the Northern clubs have wanted for years.

What the Northern clubs want, the Northern clubs get. They wanted their academies in the Nab League, they got that to.

There's going to be a scenario where the Victorian state leagues of both reserves levels and u/18 levels are directly developing players who the Northern sides have complete priority access to inside of the next few years. The Acadmies aren't developing them, they are running training for them on a Tuesday and Thursday. The highest standard of competition will be turning those sides into basically their own NAB League quality feeder sides. They will be playing the very best academy players in their reserves side, now not against NEAFL spuds, but full VFL outfits. It absolutely stinks.

It seems we are the only one in this situation, St Kilda who is financial way more f’ed than us has Sandringham and we've heard nothing of the Dogs needing to wind up their VFL side.

Yeah I know it’s a pipe
Dream but to me it’s the best solution.

SANFL clubs are close to throwing Port and Crows out of the SANFL for good. Could happen very soon.

 

[Harris 10]

Everyone would!

If they turned around and were honest with the members and said we needed $600k to help keep the VFL alive in 2021 and started a funding drive, we would get it done inside of a week........

Out of interest what would be a breakdown of the additional costs?

Top up players, Coaching staff, Medical staff, Admin staff???

 

[Swallow_Wood]

I have been a member for most of my adult life and have been extremely proud to see many of the fantastic, backs against the wall achievements that the club has delivered. I know COVID has had a massive impact across all sectors, but if the club ends up giving up the VFL side without so much as a whimper, and ends up splitting players across multiple teams, I will be utterly disgusted. We simply cannot afford to slip behind now.

As Pykie said, they should approach the membership to help fund the team. Yes, we too are doing it hard, but I guarantee you if the message was delivered honestly and openly they would get the cash commitment quick smart.

If we give up on NMFC VFL now how long until we end up getting railroaded into a Tassie based AFL reserves team?

 

[Pykie]

Out of interest what would be a breakdown of the additional costs?

Top up players, Coaching staff, Medical staff, Admin staff???

I imagine our medical, admin and coaching staff costs would be a lot higher than somewhere like Coburg.

36% of Coburgs total costs were their match payment wage bills of around $300k.

If we simply think we are 25% of that, we may only be forking out $75-$100k in match payments for VFL aligned players. I think $225k in additional admin and coaching costs is fairly realistic

However, only a % would realistically be attributed to the VFL side directly, some medico's and coaches would be utilized by the AFL side and the residual costs would have to be evenly distributed in the AFL sides running costs.

It's not a national competition yet, there's no travel and lodging fee's.

That article raises the point of the soft cap being lowered so teams are possibly not able to fit it in.

How can some clubs fit it into a soft cap limit but others can't? What would we be paying our staff that Collingwood wouldn't and would be able to fit it into the cap? Brad Scott's salary payout possibly?

 

[Pykie]

I have been a member for most of my adult life and have been extremely proud to see many of the fantastic, backs against the wall achievements that the club has delivered. I know COVID has had a massive impact across all sectors, but if the club ends up giving up the VFL side without so much as a whimper, and ends up splitting players across multiple teams, I will be utterly disgusted. We simply cannot afford to slip behind now.

As Pykie said, they should approach the membership to help fund the team. Yes, we too are doing it hard, but I guarantee you if the message was delivered honestly and openly they would get the cash commitment quick smart.

If we give up on NMFC VFL now how long until we end up getting railroaded into a Tassie based AFL reserves team?

Spot on.

I imagine as soon as 3 months it will be raised as a possibility of bringing football back to Tasmania on a weekly basis.

 

[Grogg]

Ok, so I've just fired off an email to info@nmfc.com.au. I've raised for Attn of Ben Amarfio whose direct email I don't have, so if somebody on here has that I'll double down and fire off the same copy.

If we want to up the stakes here, we need to at least let them know our thoughts as members. I've just stuck to the topic of the Reserves and the Reserves only as this will have a better chance of being respected and responded to as far as the club is concerned, imo.

Hi Ben,



With the news recently of a possibly compromised North Melbourne Reserves team taking the field in the 2021 season, it has raised some concerns for me as a 40+ year member and supporter of our great club.



Having said that, I have a couple of pressing questions, if you have the time to indulge me:



Are we fielding a North Melbourne reserves team next year?



If not, why not?



Can we help in anyway to ensure this happens as members?



Will an extra option of VFL Membership be available to us as part of our package options, as is the current AFLW option? If this is available, I along with many other diehards would happily front some extra $ if it meant we field a stand alone team.



I am a firm believer that a stand alone VFL team gives us the most cohesive pathway for developing a team that can achieve the ultimate success in the most important factor of sustaining long term supporter growth, stability and financial strength; ie; a Senior Team Premiership.



A fractured Reserves would be a huge step backwards in achieving that.



Can you shed some light for me on these matters? It would greatly put some nagging concerns from this Old Roos’ to rest.



Yours Sincerely

Groggy



Member ID: xxxxx

 

[Grogg]

Do the board fear it would it draw funds away from the AFLW?

Dunno mate.

 

[big_e]

Head in the sand stuff.

We've stood down all match day related admin at the club.

Cut line coaches for the mens side and made the entire VFL operation redundant.

The AFLW side remains unchanged.

Until someone can prove to me the AFLW side is profitable, I'm going to assume the club have chosen the AFLW side over the AFL mens side in regards to allocating revenue next year.


I will be happily proven wrong, however this uncertainty with the members is their own doing with regards to their shady financial reporting on it.

AFLW isn't unchanged, we laid off the head coach FFS.

 

[Pykie]

AFLW isn't unchanged, we laid off the head coach FFS.

Are we going into the coming season without one? That was a staff change rather than making the entire position redundant.

 

[Gumble Frankieton]

My strong preference would be for a standalone VFL side to continue for all of the reasons mentioned above. If the club came out and said we need to raise 'x amount' of money to support this then I'd certainly contribute. The idea of a VFL membership is a good one.
I'd give the club some benefit of the doubt given the clusterf**k of a year that we are in. If they are assessing all options and not wishing to act hastily...then that's ok, for now anyway. But you'd hope some information would be forthcoming soon.
If the club can't afford a standalone team then I'd hope they approach someone like Coburg. If AFL clubs are feeling the pinch then you'd have to assume Coburg would be in an even more precarious position. Anyone but Tassie...

 

[Gumble Frankieton]

Are we going into the coming season without one? That was a staff change rather than making the entire position redundant.

Isn't Crocker the new AFLW coach?

 

[Pykie]

Isn't Crocker the new AFLW coach?

Is he working for free?

We currently have no line coaches in the AFL side, the position wasn't replaced by anyone.