SA Footy

The latest casualty of the AFL and its Victorian club's greed... VFL club Preston FC otherwise known as Northern Bullants will be pretty much taken over by its aligned AFL club Carlton.

From the Northcote Leader 2/8/11...
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Preston's Bullants crushed as Blues' tighten VFL grip
By Sam Landsberger

PRESTON’S beloved Bullants will be stripped down and barely sighted with the once-proud, independent Victorian Football League club to be engulfed by its AFL partner.

The newly branded Northern Blues will concede their name, colours and a further home match to Carlton Football Club’s Visy Park, with only three VFL matches to be played at Preston’s City Oval in 2012. Premierships will only be a “bonus”, according to Northern Bullants president Stephen Papal, who said the club would instead focus on developing Carlton’s young AFL talent.

Club legend Ray Shaw, the Bullants’ most recent premiership coach, says 129 years of history will be canned, despite Mr Papal stressing the shift was “a merger” and not a takeover. Mr Shaw, a Liston Trophy winner and Bullants’ Hall of Fame member, said he respected the administration, but would no longer support the club. “Preston has just gone out the door, just gone,” Mr Shaw said. “Why couldn’t it be the Preston Blues? The northern area is a vast area.”

The Northern Blues could wear a navy blue jumper featuring a bullant in as many as 15 of 18 matches and their traditional red and white jumper at Preston games and as a clash strip only. “Our first objective is to help Carlton develop their players. Our second objective is to our community and our key stakeholders in Preston,” Mr Papal said. The Northern Bullants have about 1900 members and Mr Papal said the club’s “main members” were included in the redesign.

“We’ve (the Bullants) been selfish by putting it off, but it was always going to happen,” he said. “It’s better to exist in part than not at all. It’ll be nice to say, ‘How can we spend our money?’ instead of, ‘How are we going to pay our bills?”’ Mr Papal said the shift to play six of nine home games at Visy Park was to satisfy Carlton’s expensive playing list. “They’ve got $8 million worth of players. They want to develop them on a ground closer to the (size of the) MCG. Carlton has got 43,000 members we’ve got to appease.”

This is what things have come down to... a club must either choose closure or re-branding?

If Carlton were serious about this partnership, they wouldn't push their colours upon the Bullants.

What a joke. Carlton should be ashamed of themselves.

Football clubs exist to win premierships, not to appease those at the next level.

Pretty sad for the Bullants. Hopefully the good Vic players keep coming over to the SANFL.

Here is an article on the AFL/VFL set up: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/ ... fault.aspx

Aerie wrote:Pretty sad for the Bullants. Hopefully the good Vic players keep coming over to the SANFL.

Here is an article on the AFL/VFL set up: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/ ... fault.aspx

Even Watching VFL matches it stands out like the proverbial Dog's testicles that the AFL influences the competition. Also for a certain Adelaide based News Ltd journalist to say that AFL sides need to have their own reserves side, look at the where these clubs are at on the VFL ladder - Geelong and Collingwood are near the bottom.

Essendon are also planning to shaft the Bendigo Bombers as they submitted this week their own application to be admitted to the VFL for 2012. I assume they will play home games at Windy Hill and take the ''Bombers'' with them too.

Having said that the top side Port Melbourne are a stand alone club and seem to be going from strength to strength I wonder what their cash cow is???? Would they ever follow seriously their threat about joining the SANFL if they were shafted even more by the VFL/AFL????

Collingwood and Geelong are happy to have their reseeves near the bottom, its all about playing the same structures as their league side. The results dont matter. Ive watched numerous Bendigo Bombers games and they are a farce, you have to senior essendon coaching staff coaching from the sidelines and ordering players on and off the field. I would much prefer Essendon to have their own side than be aligned with a VFL club

So if this merger doesn't happen, the Bullants will fold?

Brucetiki wrote:What a joke. Carlton should be ashamed of themselves.

You're talking about a club who only cares about themselves. These are the sorts of things Carlton are proud of, not ashamed.

It seems AFL clubs are content to ride roughshod over anything that stands in the way of their 'business model'. To them, tradition is irrelevant.

Similar moves are afoot over here in Western Australia with West Coast and Fremantle. Their attempt to field reserves teams in the WAFL in 2012 was unsuccessful but they are planning to have have another crack and I'm sure they will eventually get their way.

The latest idea being bandied about is for the Eagles and Dockers to have reserves side playing in the WAFL without competing for premiership points!
Arrogance and selfishness in the extreme.

heater31 wrote:Having said that the top side Port Melbourne are a stand alone club and seem to be going from strength to strength I wonder what their cash cow is???? Would they ever follow seriously their threat about joining the SANFL if they were shafted even more by the VFL/AFL????

Interesting the position the two standalone VFL sides are in at the moment - Port Melbourne is a runaway on top and Frankston are dead last.

westozfalcon wrote:The latest idea being bandied about is for the Eagles and Dockers to have reserves side playing in the WAFL without competing for premiership points!
Arrogance and selfishness in the extreme.

That would destroy the integrity of the WAFL worse than if they did play for premiership points.

They've missed the point why reserves sides aren't welcome in the state leagues - state league clubs want to exist to win premierships, not to be a fodder for the AFL

westozfalcon wrote:It seems AFL clubs are content to ride roughshod over anything that stands in the way of their 'business model'. To them, tradition is irrelevant.
Similar moves are afoot over here in Western Australia with West Coast and Fremantle. Their attempt to field reserves teams in the WAFL in 2012 was unsuccessful but they are planning to have have another crack and I'm sure they will eventually get their way.

The latest idea being bandied about is for the Eagles and Dockers to have reserves side playing in the WAFL without competing for premiership points!
Arrogance and selfishness in the extreme.

Have to say that is wrong.
Tradition is very imprtant and relevant to them.
Theirs and theirs only, sod the rest.

Premierships will only be a “bonus”, according to Northern Bullants president Stephen Papal, who said the club would instead focus on developing Carlton’s young AFL talent.

Gobsmacked. My gast has been well and truly flabbered.

“Our first objective is to help Carlton develop their players. Our second objective is to our community and our key stakeholders in Preston,”

A better definition of the idiom "@rse about face" does not exist.

“We’ve (the Bullants) been selfish by putting it off,...”

No sooner have I picked my jaw up off the floor than it falls right back down there again

“It’s better to exist in part than not at all...."

Your club exists only as a zombie lurching across the football landscape, moaning "BRAAAAAAINS" in search of sustenance. Your club is the football equivalent of the undead. You think this is existence?

And you people wonder why I hate the AFL. It beats me how any rational independently-thinking being could support that bloody leviathan.

Would be interesting to see what the board of the Port Melbourne FC think of the direction the VFL is going, they have never compromised on their history and don't have any AFL club affiliation. The SANFL began with a team simply called "Victorian", bringing Port Melbourne into the SANFL would retain everything about the club and keep them playing at the best level instead of just being a training partner to facilitate the AFL in the VFL.

it sadly seems to me that 'they' (afl & afl franchises) are bit by bit chipping away so by the next generation every state league will be just a breeding ground for the franchises, because it'll be like '9 pins' as one by one the take over will happen & sadly there's nothing much we can do

And people are saying that we are overreacting about how the afl want to destroy the state leagues. By 2020 well be lucky to have any SANFL left.

I feel for the everyday Aussie rules fan in Vic.

My nephew plays for the Bullants and he reckons its a joke what is going on. they are only interested in the Carlton players and they play like crap. When they lose the coach blames the the non Carlton players for the loss not the overpaid blue baggers who can't geta kick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sojourner wrote:Would be interesting to see what the board of the Port Melbourne FC think of the direction the VFL is going, they have never compromised on their history and don't have any AFL club affiliation. The SANFL began with a team simply called "Victorian", bringing Port Melbourne into the SANFL would retain everything about the club and keep them playing at the best level instead of just being a training partner to facilitate the AFL in the VFL.

Frankston's reaction would be just as interesting as well given they've also got no AFL afilliation.

Makes you dislike Carlton even further (although I wouldn’t put it past St K doing something similar). Typical arrogance. Some of those quotes from Mr Papal are cringe worthy. What a sham.

Interesting to note that they have 1900 members. Or at least did have...