preston

[West_Coast_Eagles]

As a token gesture, they play 3 games later in the year at Cramer Street.

So cramer street will have about only 26 games on it this year

11 tac cup
3 vfl
3 vfl reses
3 nfl div 1 gf's
3 nfl div 2 gf's
3 nfl div3 gf's

 

[laguna]

What a joke!

Carlton should just field a seconds side instead of killing off the famous Preston FC and bludgeing on the Preston ratepayers using the Cramer St Oval.

I think we know who the joke is.Do some research before posting you twit

 

[West_Coast_Eagles]

I think we know who the joke is.Do some research before posting you twit

Not sure what ur talking about mate? What he said was true

 

[Blackout]

Surely you can't defend what has happened to the Preston football club Laguna.

 

[Rotations]

Not sure what ur talking about mate? What he said was true

Just get over it you flogs, if Carlton didnt help out there would be no Preston. So move on stop drinking your coke and eating twisties on your Computer chair. I what have any one of you done to help out and keep them going. GET A LIFE.

 

[Blackout]

Just get over it you flogs, if Carlton didnt help out there would be no Preston. So move on stop drinking your coke and eating twisties on your Computer chair. I what have any one of you done to help out and keep them going. GET A LIFE.

Well actually I have my home club that I'm involved with. As much as I would like to have the time to devote my life to football, I can't exactly split myself between every club I have an interest in. I couldn't imagine what I would do if my home town had its football club stripped of its identity.

The Preston situation is sad because it is not an isolated case, everything with grass roots football is now to create AFL footballers - it seems the rest can please themselves. The structure of football in Victoria is killing clubs that are an inconvenience. The second strongest league in the state has been completely destroyed by the AFL - hardly improving the sport now is it?

I assume you're an AFL fanboy. The type who are more likely to fit the stereotype that you just described, the type who only care about their AFL team, at the cost of all others (leagues, clubs, the sport in general). The fanboys who live their lives through a bunch of guys who they have nothing more to do with than what they read in the Herald Sun or watch on The Footy Show. Contrast this to people who have an interest in the game itself and its health at grass roots. The type who are genuinely concerned when one of the pillars of suburban football has been torn to shreds out of convenience.

Are you going to contribute to this conversation intelligently or call people names over the computer?

 

[mediumsizered]

Not sure what ur talking about mate? What he said was true

The reality is that the Preston Football Club, much like its close neighbour, the Coburg Football Club, have continued to participate in the VFL due to their alliance with AFL clubs.

These clubs have struggled to maintain supporter numbers since the '80s (even the successful Coburg teams of the late '80s struggled to maintain supporter numbers).

The Preston community has not embraced its local football club for many, many years. This is much to do with demographics & is not something that was going to change. Ultimately the Preston Football Club either threw its 'lot' in with the Carlton Football Club, or went the way of a couple of other ex-Northern Suburbs VFA clubs, Brunswick & Northcote.

 

[West_Coast_Eagles]

The reality is that the Preston Football Club, much like its close neighbour, the Coburg Football Club, have continued to participate in the VFL due to their alliance with AFL clubs.

These clubs have struggled to maintain supporter numbers since the '80s (even the successful Coburg teams of the late '80s struggled to maintain supporter numbers).

The Preston community has not embraced its local football club for many, many years. This is much to do with demographics & is not something that was going to change. Ultimately the Preston Football Club either threw its 'lot' in with the Carlton Football Club, or went the way of a couple of other ex-Northern Suburbs VFA clubs, Brunswick & Northcote.

Strongly disagree. Im not to sure you know why brunswick and northcote were booted out of the then vfa?

Its got nothing to do with alliances mate. The preston community has not embraced preston football club?

All it is this. Carlton do not want to go stand alone as it will cost aextra 500,000-750,000 extra a year in fees. Them aligning with preston bullants saves them this $$. Its got nothing to do with preston not going at it alone its about carlton "using" them.

Dont go saying coburg and preston are the same. Richmond & coburg have just agreed to another 3 years in alignment & things are stronger than ever. The play in coburg wear a coburg jumper & still have local support. preston would not fold without carlton

 

[mediumsizered]

Strongly disagree. Im not to sure you know why brunswick and northcote were booted out of the then vfa?

Its got nothing to do with alliances mate. The preston community has not embraced preston football club?

All it is this. Carlton do not want to go stand alone as it will cost aextra 500,000-750,000 extra a year in fees. Them aligning with preston bullants saves them this $$. Its got nothing to do with preston not going at it alone its about carlton "using" them.

Dont go saying coburg and preston are the same. Richmond & coburg have just agreed to another 3 years in alignment & things are stronger than ever. The play in coburg wear a coburg jumper & still have local support. preston would not fold without carlton

The Preston Football Club, during much of the duration of the alliance with the Carlton Football Club, have been steadfast in maintaining their independence & their own identity. Yet last year, the powers that be, who had so strongly maintained the independence of the club, chose to become more closely aligned with the Carlton Football Club & undergo a change of identity.

This is a club who know that financially they can't compete with the Port Melbourne's, the Williamstowns, the Sandringhams of the competition. They know they don't have the underlying supporter base that the aforementioned clubs have (in fact, you go to Bullants games & you will see as many people wearing Carlton colours as there are grassroots Preston supporters).

I have been following the VFA since the late 1960s. I remember the 1972 1st Semi Final between Preston & Williamstown drawing 20k to the Junction Oval. The following year I was at Coburg for the relegation battle between Coburg & Preston & there was little room to move (the only time I ever witnessed a crowd of that size at Coburg). Yet by the 1980s, when Williamstown played Preston at Preston, the Seagulls supporters, in a crowd of 1500-2000, would outnumber the Bullants supporters by at least 2-1.

Whether you like it or not, the number of grassroots Preston supporters still actively following the club is so small that they could not keep the club going as a stand alone entity. They had very little choice but to accept what was offered by the Carlton Football Club, because the alternative was not terribly attractive. The fact that only 40 supporters turned up to the special meeting to determine the future of the club speaks wonders for the grassroots support of the Northern Bullants (on 2 occasions the Williamstown Football Club faced extinction or merger & on both occasions the grassroots supporters ensured their survival).

FWIW, the VFL made it very clear they would not be issuing further licences to AFL clubs at this time. Carlton are saving very little, if any, money by operating under this new arrangement, as a significant amount of the costs for the Northern Blues are being picked up by the Carlton Football Club.

 

[helicopter]

What this guy says.

VFL is pretty much AFL reserves. The aligned clubs only about developing their afl listed players. Had mates at box hill and sandie said the saints and hawks called all the shoots. In the end cost few of my mates some spots in the seniors.

 

[Joe Mama]

So cramer street will have about only 26 games on it this year

11 tac cup
3 vfl
3 vfl reses
3 nfl div 1 gf's
3 nfl div 2 gf's
3 nfl div3 gf's

The Division Three Grand Finals (Seniors & Reserves only) are usually held at Epping, at least they were last year.

For all the $$$ that the Darebin Council put into the ground, it's a woefully under-used venue, especailly when there's a club in the local area (Fitzroy Stars) that are homeless.

Realy Carlton 2nds should just go the whole hog and move to Princes Park permanently, and have Cramer St the home of the Northern Bullants Juniors, Northern Knights and the Fitzroy Stars, at least that way there's some local footy in the Preston Area at all levels.

 

[members section]

So cramer street will have about only 26 games on it this year

11 tac cup
3 vfl
3 vfl reses
3 nfl div 1 gf's
3 nfl div 2 gf's
3 nfl div3 gf's

the northern bullants junior footy club play there every 2nd sunday & they did start a senior all albeit called the northern blues ametuer football club & wear the red northern blues jersery.
atm they have just 1 senior side & an u/19's that feed from the junior club. would prefer if they called themselfs preston or at least the northern bullants.

 

[blueroy]

I'm gutted by what has happened to Preston. When something you love gets engulfed (Preston), it doesn't make it hurt less if the party doing the engulfing is something else you love (Carlton), it still hurts just as much. There was nothing wrong with us maintaining the scraps of our identity that we had left as the Northern Bullants whilst being aligned with Carlton. While I'll never throw my lot in with Port, I've been attending games at North Port this year and felt refreshed by the atmosphere, particularly the healthy crowd at the prelim yesterday.

 

[daics_35]

I might still follow the Northern Blues even though they are aligned with Carlton. The first football game I ever went to was to watch the Bullants at Crammer St. If Carlton didn't help Preston, who knows we could have folded by now. Sad to see the jumper change to Blue. I am sure this thing with Carlton wont last forever and when it ends the jumper will change back so will the name.

 

[West_Coast_Eagles]

It changed once already! Mid 90's restonwere the knights!

 

[kavorka]

This thread makes me really sad (and angry)....when the VFA got renamed to VFL and became aligned with the AFL reserves one condition should have been that the AFL reserves team must use the identity and colors of the VFA team it is aligned with.

For example, it really burns me up when I see the Box Hill Mustangs running around as the Box Hills Hawks, Coburg Lions called Coburg Tigers, and the abomination that is the Preston Blues. Is it that important to Carlton that their reserves teams has to play in a Carlton guernsey?

I really hope one day the old VFA teams would break away and reform the VFA on a low budget (if not amatuer) scale and slowly build up again.

Oh for the days when the VFA was at it its peak with two divisions of 12 teams

 

[BlueJet]

This thread makes me really sad (and angry)....when the VFA got renamed to VFL and became aligned with the AFL reserves one condition should have been that the AFL reserves team must use the identity and colors of the VFA team it is aligned with.

For example, it really burns me up when I see the Box Hill Mustangs running around as the Box Hills Hawks, Coburg Lions called Coburg Tigers, and the abomination that is the Preston Blues. Is it that important to Carlton that their reserves teams has to play in a Carlton guernsey?

I really hope one day the old VFA teams would break away and reform the VFA on a low budget (if not amatuer) scale and slowly build up again.

Oh for the days when the VFA was at it its peak with two divisions of 12 teams

I'm a Carlton supporter with no ties to the Preston side prior to the allignment, yet this pissed me right off..

 

[mediumsizered]

This thread makes me really sad (and angry)....when the VFA got renamed to VFL and became aligned with the AFL reserves one condition should have been that the AFL reserves team must use the identity and colors of the VFA team it is aligned with.

For example, it really burns me up when I see the Box Hill Mustangs running around as the Box Hills Hawks, Coburg Lions called Coburg Tigers, and the abomination that is the Preston Blues. Is it that important to Carlton that their reserves teams has to play in a Carlton guernsey?

I really hope one day the old VFA teams would break away and reform the VFA on a low budget (if not amatuer) scale and slowly build up again.

Oh for the days when the VFA was at it its peak with two divisions of 12 teams

They were great days, but the first nail in the coffin came when the VFL aggressively pursued Sunday football. The VFA had moved to playing on Sundays once they realised they could not compete with the VFL on Saturdays. This was a smart move at the time, which bought the VFA several years of breathing space. Although they couldn't match the VFL attendances, the interest in the VFA was still quite significant, being assisted by the excellent TV coverage provided by Channel 0/10 in the '70s & '80s.

Although the Vic State Govt prevented the VFL for some time from playing games on Sundays, the VFL worked around this by playing reserves games on Sunday (broadcast by Channel 7), by playing games in Sydney on Sundays & then ultimately moving the Swans to Sydney & playing their home games on Sundays.

Once the State Govt caved in to the VFL's push for Sunday football, the VFA, as we knew it, was always going to be in trouble. VFA clubs found it harder to attract sponsors, as their exposure was further reduced & also found it difficult to attract players. It is no coincidence that those VFA clubs that did survive the transition from the VFA to what is now known as the VFL (some of them barely by the skin of their teeth), were mostly those who had experienced success through the '70s or '80s & had loyal supporter bases & good administrations.

The sad reality is that as more AFL clubs start fielding their own VFL teams it will be harder for teams like Coburg, the former Bullants, Box Hill, Springvale, among others, to survive & compete against teams that are fully professional.

I miss the days when the VFA was still reasonably strong, but we won't see those days again & although it is sad to watch the demise of clubs with such great histories, it was always inevitable as the VFL/AFL grew financially stronger & stronger.

 

[Dogs till i die]

The fact that more AFL clubs are ending their VFL alignments and going alone in the VFL actually raises hopes that the likes of Willy, Port, Frankston and North Ballarat will reform in a separate competition / conference than the AFL Reserve teams. Hopefully Coburg, Werribee, Bendigo, Sandy, Casey and Box Hill can join them in a comp run with tight budgets and salary caps and somehow find a niche in the football market based on passionate local support. I'd love to watch some passionate second tier footy again. Perhaps Fitzroy could join them?

 

[madmug]

I just read this thread & feel sorry for any club who starts to lose their identity. I lived & worked in Melbourne for a few years back in the late 80's early 90's. I lived not far from Cramer st. I went to quite a few games at the Preston City Oval & really enjoyed the club atmosphere.
VFA footy was then 16 aside ( 'no wings but a high flier' as the coodabeen champions use to say) & the crowds were like Tassie club footy 1500-3000 at that time. The Ethnic mix of players & the crowd was fantastic, oh so different to Tassie footy crowds!. The supporters were real footy heads & had real passion. I did frequent the Preston club bar & encountered a few stalwarts. I got rat-arsed on more than one occasion I can tell you.
Its a long time since I've been to Cramer st. I hope the Bullants keep their identity & keep going. I liked them & the people I met, a lot.
Good luck Bullants

 

[David Schwarz]

Just get over it you flogs, if Carlton didnt help out there would be no Preston. So move on stop drinking your coke and eating twisties on your Computer chair. I what have any one of you done to help out and keep them going. GET A LIFE.

Preston fell by the wayside and needed drip support because of the muppet president whose name escapes me effectively cannibalised the club for his beloved Carlton. He tried to do the same with Bundoora (Bundoora-Preston-Collingwood alliance was huge) by trying to merge us with an EFL club and playing out of Bulleen and even resorted to stealing money for the new clubrooms in 2005 before he was chased out of Yulong Reserve

He's a dog of the highest order and this is his doing pure and simple.

Preston will forever linger in the hearts it touched. Famous club with a grand history.

Bugger the Dandenong, Sandy and Port scum, Preston will always be number 1!

 

[getthefooty]

I dunno if it's any consolation to anyone, but the Preston Bullants Junior Football Club is a really strong club - has U9s to Colts - and is probably one of the stronger clubs in the YJFL. Still wear the same jumper, play at Cramer St every Sunday, even a few famous Preston names from way back involved. They have expanded to have an U19s and seniors play in the VAFA (although they are also called the Northern Blues). Loved playing at Cramer St, terrific ground, awesome grandstand and scoreboard. The juniors have redone the social rooms, looks really good. There is actually quite strong competition for the ground with PBJFC, Northern Knights, Auskick, and occasionally the Northern Blues, as well as other senior comp finals.