VFA - Hall of Fame?

[Bunk Moreland]

Heard earlier there's a bit of a push on from VFA clubs for their players to be included in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Possible inductees would be:

Fred Cook - 1336 goals
Rino Pretto - 1070 goals
Bob Bonnett - 933 goals
Frosty Miller - 883 goals
Dual competition B&F winners - Bill Swan, Vic Aanensen, Laurie Hill, Alan Poore, Des Fothergill, Jack Davis, Arthur Cutting, Neville Huggins, Jim Dowling

In 2000 AFL reserves sides were entered into the league, so that would be the cut-off point.

I don't know about it, but there is definitely a discussion to be had... most of these guys plied their trade when both the VFA and VFL were suburban competitions, and the VFA was highly regarded. Players moved between the leagues - or didn't - I've heard plenty about the likes of Bonnett and Frosty Miller not crossing to the VFL because the pay wasn't good enough.

What do people think? Would you support the induction of VFA greats into the Hall of Fame?

 

[00Stinger]

Fred Fanning kicked 18 goals in his last ever VFL match. He then left to play for Hamilton in the Western District Football league as he was offered three times the salary.

Should legends of the Western District Football League be eligible for the AFL hall of fame too?

Just leave it as it is

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Fred Fanning kicked 18 goals in his last ever VFL match. He then left to play for Hamilton in the Western District Football league as he was offered three times the salary.

Should legends of the Western District Football League be eligible for the AFL hall of fame too?

Just leave it as it is

Well no, because you’d apply common sense.

 

[Mofra]

Pre-1925 players regularly switched between the VFA and VFL and even in the 80s there didn't seem to be a huge difference in standards with most acknowledging that the VFA was a higher standard than the VFL reserves.
The Coburg-Williamstown rivalry of the 80s was legendary.

 

[I Rock]

I think this needs to happen. If other State Leagues are included (which is fair enough), then so should the VFA.

*Edit - If this was to happen I think Phil Cleary gets up in the first lot.

 

[pazza]

I think there is a case.

We know that some people who have had involvement in the VFA along with the AFL have been included...Barry Round, Des Fothergill are the obvious examples there. There are others..Bob Skilton, Peter Bedford, Peter McKenna....

There would be a host of players who would be included.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Dual competition B&F winners - Vic Aanensen

Which other comp did Aanensen win a b&f in? It certainly wasn't the VFL.

This is a case which illustrates the difficulty. Aanensen played 40 games for South Melbourne and recorded one Brownlow vote. However good he may have been later in the VFA, is it right that he sits alongside VFL/AFL greats?

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Which other comp did Aanensen win a b&f in? It certainly wasn't the VFL.

This is a case which illustrates the difficulty. Aanensen played 40 games for South Melbourne and recorded one Brownlow vote. However good he may have been later in the VFA, is it right that he sits alongside VFL/AFL greats?

Dual as in they won it twice - he won the Liston twice.

As for your wider question, I don’t know, that’s the question - where does the VFA sit? Is it considered alongside the VFL, WAFL and SANFL?

 

[Ron The Bear]

Dual as in they won it twice - he won the Liston twice.

As for your wider question, I don’t know, that’s the question - where does the VFA sit? Is it considered alongside the VFL, WAFL and SANFL?

Think the player has to be graded, rather than the comp. Fothergill's record in the VFL alone is astounding, but it's much harder to assess VFA-only players on an equal footing.

 

[Pedantic]

Heard earlier there's a bit of a push on from VFA clubs for their players to be included in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Possible inductees would be:

Fred Cook - 1336 goals
Rino Pretto - 1070 goals
Bob Bonnett - 933 goals
Frosty Miller - 883 goals
Dual competition B&F winners - Bill Swan, Vic Aanensen, Laurie Hill, Alan Poore, Des Fothergill, Jack Davis, Arthur Cutting, Neville Huggins, Jim Dowling

In 2000 AFL reserves sides were entered into the league, so that would be the cut-off point.

I don't know about it, but there is definitely a discussion to be had... most of these guys plied their trade when both the VFA and VFL were suburban competitions, and the VFA was highly regarded. Players moved between the leagues - or didn't - I've heard plenty about the likes of Bonnett and Frosty Miller not crossing to the VFL because the pay wasn't good enough.

What do people think? Would you support the induction of VFA greats into the Hall of Fame?

Fothergill is already in the HOF. Ron Todd was inducted in 2017 and was I think the first player to have his VFA record included as part of why he was inducted (excluding pre-1897 players). It seems inevitable to me that gradually more will trickle in and I'd expect some of the clubs that still survive as somewhat of a force (Port, Willy, etc.) to push pretty hard for their one or two guys. I think the argument could easily be made that there were eras during the first half of the 20th century when the VFA was as strong as the WAFL and certainly the Tasmanian leagues where I think we've had a few inductees from. The Goldfields league in the very early 20th century is another league where playing achievements should be considered as possibly HOF worthy.

When looking at the VFA it's important to remember that for a fair while it had two divisions - Pretto from memory kicked the large majority of his goals in division 2, which I think would exclude him from the HOF.

Pre-1925 players regularly switched between the VFA and VFL and even in the 80s there didn't seem to be a huge difference in standards with most acknowledging that the VFA was a higher standard than the VFL reserves.
The Coburg-Williamstown rivalry of the 80s was legendary.

Even up until WW2 there were some very high profile transfers. Laurie Nash, Bob Pratt, etc. were stars of the VFL when they switched over.

 

[pazza]

The VFA only had 2 divisions from the 1960's until 1988.

It might need a bit of revision for some blokes though. Let's look at Kevin Sheedy for example. Last year we know he celebrated 50 years in footy. Excluded from that is the time he spent at Prahran before he joined Richmond. In reality, his time in the game is more than 55 years.

 

[sprockets]

Heard earlier there's a bit of a push on from VFA clubs for their players to be included in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Possible inductees would be:

Fred Cook - 1336 goals
Rino Pretto - 1070 goals
Bob Bonnett - 933 goals
Frosty Miller - 883 goals
Dual competition B&F winners - Bill Swan, Vic Aanensen, Laurie Hill, Alan Poore, Des Fothergill, Jack Davis, Arthur Cutting, Neville Huggins, Jim Dowling

In 2000 AFL reserves sides were entered into the league, so that would be the cut-off point.

I don't know about it, but there is definitely a discussion to be had... most of these guys plied their trade when both the VFA and VFL were suburban competitions, and the VFA was highly regarded. Players moved between the leagues - or didn't - I've heard plenty about the likes of Bonnett and Frosty Miller not crossing to the VFL because the pay wasn't good enough.

What do people think? Would you support the induction of VFA greats into the Hall of Fame?

I met Rino Pretto back in the day. His wrists were as big as my thighs.

 

[I Rock]

One could easily argue at it's peak the VFA was just as strong as the other State Leagues at the same time. It wasn't the talent of the Players that saw it's demise, but the Business model against the VFL's National expansion.

If the SANFL, WAFL etc are included as part of the greater Australian Football HOF then of course the VFA should be. The VFA's relationship to the how the VFL becoming the AFL is just the same as the other State Leagues. It just happened to be in the same "home" state and then merged with the second tier state league of the AFL. Hence from that point on Players would not be eligible.