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VFL 2026

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At the end of last season the AFL was reportedly saying no changes to the VFL for 5 years and now they're saying 3, wouldn't trust them to not go back on this promise anyway if they decide it's convenient for them
 
Spiny Norman said:
At the end of last season the AFL was reportedly saying no changes to the VFL for 5 years and now they're saying 3, wouldn't trust them to not go back on this promise anyway if they decide it's convenient for them
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Not that I'm not concerned about the future of our competition, but I don't see any real answer to the logistical challenges that currently prevent a standalone reserves league. The AFL clearly doesn't want the cost of a national reserves league and flying two sets of teams all across the country, or even having two second-tier leagues (hence why they merged the reserves into the VFL in the first place.)

Port Adelaide tried to move to the VFL and were blocked from doing so, which tells me the AFL prefers the current model for now. Personally I'm more concerned about standalone clubs struggling to remain successful on the field and relevant to football supporters under a model that treats the VFL as a player development system rather than a league for people to watch.
 

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Here. Is club by club breakdown of TV Schedule for Rounds 1-13 (ABC/Kayo/7plus)
 

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AussieNick1999 said:
Not that I'm not concerned about the future of our competition, but I don't see any real answer to the logistical challenges that currently prevent a standalone reserves league. The AFL clearly doesn't want the cost of a national reserves league and flying two sets of teams all across the country, or even having two second-tier leagues (hence why they merged the reserves into the VFL in the first place.)

Port Adelaide tried to move to the VFL and were blocked from doing so, which tells me the AFL prefers the current model for now. Personally I'm more concerned about standalone clubs struggling to remain successful on the field and relevant to football supporters under a model that treats the VFL as a player development system rather than a league for people to watch.
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It is true that it doesn't look like the AFL actually wants a national reserves competition. Part of my concern, though, is that they will decide to get rid of more standalones and won't even wait 3 years to do it.

At any rate the new TV deal looks good - hopefully that will increase viewership numbers and get more people interested in the league.
 
Spiny Norman said:
It is true that it doesn't look like the AFL actually wants a national reserves competition. Part of my concern, though, is that they will decide to get rid of more standalones and won't even wait 3 years to do it.

At any rate the new TV deal looks good - hopefully that will increase viewership numbers and get more people interested in the league.
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Question is how do they get rid of more standalones? If they could simply terminate our licences with no consequence they probably would have done it by now, and they would have booted Preston a lot sooner. Obviously there are conditions that would have to be met if the AFL decided to kick a club out.

I don't think they care enough to actively push the standalones out. They'll happily have a few extra teams in their reserves team developing players for the draft. They just aren't going to lift a finger if any of these clubs falls into trouble. They are indifferent to us.
 
Rickee said:
Frankston and Williamstown, two 2025 finalists, get 0 and 1 TV games and 13th place Carlton gets 6.

How does that make sense?
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For us it'll be that we play most of our home games on either Friday or Saturday night, as Robbo mentioned. Although I don't get why they couldn't have covered the Southport game if we're going to be stuck playing in such a shitty timeslot.

It's a tradeoff that I'll accept. As much as I'd like our broadcast lights to actually get used for our games, it's clear that no network wants to run a VFL broadcast against a primetime AFL game. I'll take a livestream game at night with a massive crowd over a Saturday afternoon TV game in front of a few hundred people.
 
Round 1 Time Change
Saturday March 21
Richmond vs Southport at Kinetic Stadium will now start at 10am (originally 12:05pm)

Free Entry for this game
 
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Can anyone explain to me the logic of Geelong playing R1 (when their AFL team has their OR bye) instead of North Melbourne, whose seniors are playing?

As an Essendon fan it's a big advantage to us to play them as they cannot play any of their 23 from today (plus the 5 others on their injury list, though that's more due to them being out anyway) but it's bizarre how they've fixtured it
 

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Spiny Norman said:
It is true that it doesn't look like the AFL actually wants a national reserves competition. Part of my concern, though, is that they will decide to get rid of more standalones and won't even wait 3 years to do it.

At any rate the new TV deal looks good - hopefully that will increase viewership numbers and get more people interested in the league.
Click to expand...

National reserves is just rubbish constantly spruiked by a couple of WA/SA clubs. That’s it. Nobody wants it - not the AFL, and not the Vic AFL clubs who are still in a majority in the league.

It would actually be shit for the AFL clubs. Reserves footy is a necessity for player development and injury return. They don’t want to have to travel around the country for that. They want to manage it at home.

I don’t think they will actively seek to get rid of standalone because Victoria needs a top level state league. It’s a pretty vital part of development and losing the VFL standalone would leave a massive hole that would have to be filled some other way.

If a standalone club gets into existential financial trouble then they’ll be in big trouble (ie Preston), but I don’t think the AFL will actively look to get rid of any of the clubs that are stable.
 
Bunk Moreland said:
National reserves is just rubbish constantly spruiked by a couple of WA/SA clubs. That’s it. Nobody wants it - not the AFL, and not the Vic AFL clubs who are still in a majority in the league.

It would actually be shit for the AFL clubs. Reserves footy is a necessity for player development and injury return. They don’t want to have to travel around the country for that. They want to manage it at home.

I don’t think they will actively seek to get rid of standalone because Victoria needs a top level state league. It’s a pretty vital part of development and losing the VFL standalone would leave a massive hole that would have to be filled some other way.

If a standalone club gets into existential financial trouble then they’ll be in big trouble (ie Preston), but I don’t think the AFL will actively look to get rid of any of the clubs that are stable.
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I agree, all depends on how strong your club is financially, competitiveness and what you provide for the AFL in terms of players and personnel
 
Bunk Moreland said:
National reserves is just rubbish constantly spruiked by a couple of WA/SA clubs. That’s it. Nobody wants it - not the AFL, and not the Vic AFL clubs who are still in a majority in the league.

It would actually be shit for the AFL clubs. Reserves footy is a necessity for player development and injury return. They don’t want to have to travel around the country for that. They want to manage it at home.

I don’t think they will actively seek to get rid of standalone because Victoria needs a top level state league. It’s a pretty vital part of development and losing the VFL standalone would leave a massive hole that would have to be filled some other way.

If a standalone club gets into existential financial trouble then they’ll be in big trouble (ie Preston), but I don’t think the AFL will actively look to get rid of any of the clubs that are stable.
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All good points. I am perhaps overly paranoid about what the AFL might do since, although the administration is (presumably) composed of humans who respond to incentives rather than cartoon villains, they do not always even respond to incentives in ways that are reasonable or genuinely in their own self-interest. So I wouldn't put it past them to do something dumb and terrible, quite possibly something that I haven't even thought of. But there's no sense worrying about what can't be predicted.
 

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Richmond vs Southport and Gold Coast vs Werribee matches will be telecast live on Fox Footy this weekend
 
MRobbo said:
Richmond vs Southport and Gold Coast vs Werribee matches will be telecast live on Fox Footy this weekend
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That a good day of coverage with Footscray/Casey on ABC and Tassie/Coburg on 7+
 
Slight time changes for Kayo (Fox Footy) games - games will start 2 mins later then originally scheduled

For example this weekend
Richmond vs Southport now starts at 10:02am local (9:02am QlLD)
Gold Coast vs Werribee now starts at 11:02am local (12:02pm Melbourne)
 
Channel 7 Tasmania VFL commentary team as announced tonight m Agenda Setters
John Donohue , Russell Robertson and Izzy Thompson
 

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