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RDFL Thread 2007

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I agree with Mongrel that M. Macinerny and Bonnicci will have polled well but will they take votes away from each other? I think this may be a common theme for the Roos this year, they have played some great footy with solid contributors accross the board. I think a similar thing may happen at Riddell with Aarron Blade and some of the young kids in Box and Leitch, however, Belville's class and sheer number of possesions at stoppages will ensure he gets noticed while the umpire is nice and close. The dreads will also help him get noticed:D

Has there been any wash up from the Roos v Diggers game with reports at all? I'm not sure who was reported but from what I hear it was pretty intense situation with a couple of blokes being looked at from both sides. Can anyone shed some light on the outcome?
 

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BrownDog2 said:
How many weeks did the Kangaroos reserves player get for his king hit on Marchewka?
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Isn't a king hit generally from behind? marchewka saw it coming. regardless i thought it may have been light, but i thought the other incident was heavy, in the end 8 weeks, probably close to the mark.
 
blues12 said:
Isn't a king hit generally from behind? marchewka saw it coming. regardless i thought it may have been light, but i thought the other incident was heavy, in the end 8 weeks, probably close to the mark.
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if you run 20m to hit someone, that's a King Hit.

I thought he was offered and he excepted a 2 week Set Penality for hitting the other player, did that get referred to the Tribunal also?
 
OMNIPOTENT_1 said:
Give your game the flick champ & come up & watch,(spy) they've even re-stocked the bar with your favorite tipple since you were last there & cleaned em out !
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What and miss out on having a sip with HFF... :D
 
blues12 said:
Isn't a king hit generally from behind? marchewka saw it coming. regardless i thought it may have been light, but i thought the other incident was heavy, in the end 8 weeks, probably close to the mark.
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blues12 u dont think it was a king hit or a cheap shot??? Irrespective of how many weeks he got he was going to miss a lot anyway wasnt he given the injury that came out of incident.. im no doctor but from all reports by some players associated with the kangaroos the injury was an 8-10 week injury anyways. Also i dont know the guy but they tell me it was out of character????
 
billylid said:
blues12 u dont think it was a king hit or a cheap shot??? Irrespective of how many weeks he got he was going to miss a lot anyway wasnt he given the injury that came out of incident.. im no doctor but from all reports by some players associated with the kangaroos the injury was an 8-10 week injury anyways. Also i dont know the guy but they tell me it was out of character????
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the player may not be concerned of his suspension due to his injury, but he is half way there to 16 weeks suspension and automatic deregistration.
 
sorry to bring up a dead issue, but this means that quietly calling an umpire a cheat (thinking out loud) is just as serious as punching a person in the face. I am sure the bloke he hit would not agree. :thumbsdown: any other thoughts on this
 

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Itsmyshow said:
I dunno, why dont you ask a former Bowen Medallist that called an umpire a cheat to his face this week and got NOTHING..... :mad:
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Just to clear this up... This isn't a stab at the player.. This is merely pointing out that at stages it seems as though some are targeted for action, while others can get away with something along the same lines... It shows how easy it is for someone to let slip with the word "cheat".. The player in question is a great guy, plays fair on the field, nice bloke, but it can come out easily enough, if you are going to make a call on punishing it, make sure you do it across the board....
 
A really interesting piece from about 2001-2002 that I though people might enjoy.. Shows just how far our competition has come....

A Riddell solution

by PAUL DAFFEY

FOR several years, the Riddell District Football League has been in turmoil. Rumours of imminent demise have clouded the competition like the mist that settles on Mount Macedon.

Even on the eve of this season, gossip raced through the horse studs and new housing estates between Melbourne's northern fringe and the Macedon Ranges suggesting the Riddell competition was about to fold. Supporters were thankful when the ball was bounced to begin the first round, but many wondered how long the league could continue in such a climate of uncertainty.

The league had been reduced from 20 clubs in the mid-1990s down to nine. Three clubs had folded and the best eight had moved on to stronger competitions. The most recent departure was Wallan, which won a clearance to the Diamond Valley league on appeal over summer.

Of the nine clubs that remained in the Riddell league, Melton Central and the Sunbury Kangaroos were servicing debts believed to be more than $15,000 each. Clubs in healthier condition were making noises about abandoning a hopeless cause.

Ray Hocking, the RDFL general manager, turned up at the delegates meeting at league headquarters in Sunbury last Monday expecting tension. The subject of the competition's future would surely divide the room.

But as soon as he walked in the door, he sensed an air of cohesion. For the first time in Hocking's three years at the helm, the delegates were of a similar mind.

They wanted the league to continue with nine clubs, with the aim of including another club to eliminate the bye. Their main concern, however, was to seek a guarantee from Football Victoria, the body that oversees all local footy bodies in the state, that the Riddell league would continue for five years without the threat of being disbanded.

"Everybody seemed to be pulling in the right direction," said Hocking, who also serves the competition as a leading field umpire. "Everybody was trying to put steps in place to secure the future."

A big reason for the harmony is the improved performance of clubs such as Rockbank, which failed to win a game after crossing from the Western Region league for the 2000 season. The club based on the Western Highway, on the Melbourne side of Melton, improved slowly after the appointment of Steve Lowerson as coach last year and hopes to keep inching up the ladder.

President Garry Stevens said the lack of wins has no bearing on his club's attitude towards the Riddell league. The appointment of an umpire for each match in every grade means his club avoids the trouble it struck in second division in the Western region league.

"All teams go out and play football," Stevens said. "That makes a big difference. We're very happy."

Even Sunbury Kangaroos at the bottom of the ladder are considered an improver. They might have won their first game for the season only last week, defeating Melton Central, but no longer do the Roos cop weekly wallopings.

President Paul Noonan said the growing evenness of the competition has surprised a few, including himself. "There was a large degree of inequality," he said. "Now the club's quite happy."

This inequality is the reason behind the leeching of clubs to surrounding leagues. A decade ago, the leading teams in the Riddell competition, such as Sunbury and Melton, would have matched wits with any rival in country football.

To keep up with these larger clubs, smaller outfits such as Riddell spent heavily on recruits. Riddell won the 1991 and '92 premierships in division one but the financial cost took its toll - two years later the club was broke and in recess.

The gap between the larger clubs and their smaller neighbors widened until a clear division opened up between seven clubs and the rest. The super seven were Melton, Melton South, Sunbury, Darley, Gisborne, Craigieburn and Jacana.

An eighth club made up the first division but found itself on the end of a hiding every week.

In the end, the premiers in second division refused to accept promotion. The top seven clubs were left to fight out first division among themselves, leaving 13 in the second tier.

At the delegate level these lower clubs tended to vote as a bloc, protecting their own interests but undermining the development of the competition. Rod Ward, now the Darley general manager, described it as a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.

The Ballarat league looked on at the disgruntlement of the leading Riddell league clubs and invited them to switch. Melton, Melton South, Sunbury and Darley - the westernmost powerful clubs - were flattered, but the prospect of playing in a competition that had won country championships proved daunting.

Darley decided the only way to make up for perceived shortfalls against rivals in Ballarat was to consider the unthinkable: merging with hated neighbour Bacchus Marsh, which was already in the Ballarat league. Bacchus Marsh members voted to merge but when the vote went to the Darley members, those in support fell short of the 75 per cent required by the club's constitution.

With the merger proposal defeated, Darley supporters accepted that they would front up for another season in the Riddell league. A day later, however, the matter was taken out of their hands when the 13 clubs in the lower bloc took a vote and decided to kick out the four clubs being courted by the Ballarat league.

Darley was left with no choice but to head west without a merger partner. The other Ballarat league recruits took the same approach.

Darley was overwhelmed by its debut into the Ballarat league when Jim Pryor, the revered president of the Ballarat Football Club, stood at the gate of his club's ground and personally welcomed every Darley supporter before letting them in free of charge. Darley responded by winning.

At Sunbury, the Lions were worried about their first match against Lake Wendouree. The Lakers were considered a leading finals fancy but Sunbury, under former Fitzroy defender Dean Lupson, won the match in a canter.

Halfway through the season, Sunbury realised its ambition of finishing the season midway up the ladder was misplaced. Its fellow former Riddell league rivals realised the same.

For much of the season, the four clubs filled the first four positions on the ladder. Sunbury secretary David Kimpton admitted the Lions were disappointed after building themselves up for a torrid entry into the upper reaches of country football.

"We expected the competition to be more fierce than it was," he said.

Sunbury went on to win the premiership, and the next two for good measure. Melton then stepped up to win the 2000 and 2001 flags, leaving supporters in the Ballarat region resenting the eastern bloc, as the former Riddell league rivals have come to be known.

The four clubs consider the move to the Ballarat league to be the best step their clubs have taken. At Darley, turnover has increased from $100,000 to $300,000, membership has increased from 70 to 600, and sponsorship is up from $15,000 to $100,000.

The increased scale of operations is also reflected in home crowds, which average 3000 this season. "In hindsight, the move to the Ballarat league is the best thing that could have happened to us," said Ward, who in 1996 voted to merge with Bacchus Marsh.

Gisborne remained in the Riddell league when its main rivals went to Ballarat, but it began preparing for bigger things by modeling itself on Darley, improving its facilities and playing stocks. The Bulldogs dominated the Riddell league, winning three consecutive premierships, with former Essendon defender Michael Werner kicking more than 180 goals in 1997, before accepting an invitation to join the Bendigo league.

Paul Turner, the Gisborne president when the club crossed to Bendigo, where it made the finals in its first season, said the Bulldogs outgrew the Riddell league. "Riddell is what we believe to be village football - a competition played in towns without a high school or major industry. Gisborne didn't fit into that category."

Kilmore, with a population of 3000, a share of industry and the most famous football school in Australia, Assumption College, also fails to fit Turner's definition of village football. The Kilmore Football Club last year reflected these advantages over village rivals when it went through the Riddell league season undefeated.

The Blues lost 18 players from their premiership side, including half a dozen who sought a new challenge at struggling North Central club Boort, but its strength in junior supply is reflected in the fact that it continues to hold a place in the top four.

The club believed the Riddell league was on the skids when it agreed to talks earlier this season with the Heathcote and Bendigo leagues about moving into a central Victorian competition.

Dayson Carroll, the coach and president of Kilmore, is impressed with the administration at Bendigo, just as the former Riddell league clubs in Ballarat are impressed with the independent board that runs their competition, but he believes the Blues would struggle against the might of outfits such as Golden Square and Sandhurst.

Transfer talks are also scheduled with Diamond Valley league officials in the next fortnight about following the lead of Wallan, which has won one game in second division in the competition based in Melbourne's north-east suburbs, but Carroll and his club remain open to the idea of staying with the Riddell league.

The main concern is stability. "It's no use being in a league that's a year-to-year prospect," Carroll said. "We want a commitment."

Kilmore has written to Football Victoria seeking a five-year commitment. It is this backing that Carroll would like to take to the members when the club votes on direction at the end of the season.

Football Victoria project manager Paul Milo and chief executive officer Ken Gannon are to meet the Riddell league clubs on July 15. Milo has doubts about the legal binding of a five-year commitment from Football Victoria - it might be subject to the vagaries of a changing executive in Riddell - but he said he would be guided by the clubs.

"The meeting is the starting point," he said.

In the meantime, with every passing week, the Riddell league seems to be overcoming a decade of turmoil and settling into its own rhythm. The exodus of powerful clubs has left nine clubs on more or less equal footing, with Kilmore the possible exception.

All the clubs are based just beyond Melbourne, improving on the flawed combination of suburban clubs and country clubs that existed until recent years, and seem to have much in common. Debt remains a problem, but with the help of payment programs and guidance from the Riddell league board, there is hope that the debt can be managed.

A name change, such as the Macedon Ranges Football League, has been suggested to reflect the competition's renewed rural identity. But first, the matter of whether the league is to survive must be worked out.

A few months ago, the competition looked shot. At least now there is hope of survival, and even a healthy measure of optimism.
 
Great post IMS. I have that article up on my wall at work, and often look back on it.

In light of that, I think you have inspired me to right a piece on the resurgence of the competition. Stay tuned ...
 
matt_nicholls said:
Great post IMS. I have that article up on my wall at work, and often look back on it.

In light of that, I think you have inspired me to right a piece on the resurgence of the competition. Stay tuned ...
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Does this make you feel warm and fuzzy IMS? :D I read the article and reflected those years when I was a bit younger playing against Gisborne and Wallan. In those days the Redbacks got a fair share of smashings at the hands of the Doggies, Kilmore and well, nearly everyone. It's a great thing to still see the league holding it's own and perhaps even gaining a bit against some of the other leagues. It's funny how things go around 180 degrees a decade later, Roos (Rovers then) from the bottom, to now being a genuine contender. Credit to the the Roos committee and also the league officials for working through the hard times and getting the league back to where it should be:thumbsu::thumbsu:
 

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matt_nicholls said:
Great post IMS. I have that article up on my wall at work, and often look back on it.

In light of that, I think you have inspired me to right a piece on the resurgence of the competition. Stay tuned ...
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hey matt got any odds on which club will poll the most votes..?
 
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