Stand Alone Bulldogs VFL Team in 2014

[GVGjr]

4 of the last 5 grand finals have been won by teams with a stand alone reserves side.

It's not that they can't be developed, it's that they could be developed better and that's what a standalone VFL team indicates IMO.

By cashed up clubs who have everything else already in place?

If it can be done right of course it could be a positive but if due to budget constraints we can't attract to the sort of top up players we need to make us competitive I can see a situation where we are in the finals of the AFL but not having our VFL side playing when we need to get some game time into players.

[azabob]

We should be getting Adam Potter on board next season and handing him the job in 2014.

He is back working with Williamstown next season, so we have another chance to look at him.

[boydogs]

Read the book a long while back and saw the movie when it came out.

Think of McCartney as the recruiter who traded the guy the coach was playing on first base.

[GVGjr]

Think of McCartney as the recruiter who traded the guy the coach was playing on first base.

Did you read the book or see the movie?

[boydogs]

Did you read the book or see the movie?

Movie

[GVGjr]

Movie

Thought so. The point you are making from the movie isn't consistent with the more accurate book.
The Carlos Pena trade was actually part of a very complicated three team deal involving a number of players and it wasn't to make room for Scott Hatteburg and exercise control of the manager as the movie portrayed.

Back to McCartney, I think he has made an error in the way he approached the Williamstown relationship this season and I certainly don't see it as part of a Moneyball approach or to intentionally break the relationship. I think he just wanted them to accept it and it has simply backfired.

[boydogs]

Thought so.

I did say 'seen'

Back to McCartney, I think he has made an error in the way he approached the Williamstown relationship this season and I certainly don't see it as part of a Moneyball approach or to intentionally break the relationship. I think he just wanted them to accept it and it has simply backfired.

Intentional or not, I don't think you could call the club having their own VFL side backfiring.

If McCartney treated a Bulldogs VFL side like he treated Williamstown this season by resting so many players it would hardly be worth watching them.

This seems to me why you are so negative about this compared to other posters. My interest in Williamstown is secondary in every way, yet you seem to value them outside of their contribution to developing WB players.

[GVGjr]

Intentional or not, I don't think you could call the club having their own VFL side backfiring.

If it can't be funded properly I think you can. It's a lot bigger project than just putting our VFL players into a red, white and blue jumper.
What has the club done recently that gives you the confidence they will do it well? The Darwin and Canberra ventures or the Edgewater project that is something like 12 months and counting behind?

Do we have the resources to do this right?

This seems to me why you are so negative about this compared to other posters. My interest in Williamstown is secondary in every way, yet you seem to value them outside of their contribution to developing WB players.

I'm not negative to it but I have my doubts we will do it right and I think it needs to be done right. As I have previously stated, if we can't fund sufficient GPS vests for our team now what else do we have to drop to put this side together?
How deep are you looking at this?
At the moment to me it's symbolic win but very light on detail and if we will make a success of it.

I'm also out of synch with some others because I'm looking a bit deeper than just thinking games at the WO will make us into a better side.

Whilst your interest in Williamstown might be secondary I tend to think it's important for the club to honor contracts and commitments and they should not simply be walked away from. If a sponsor walked away from us we would all be as dirty as with them but for some reason we don't seem to mind if the club picks and chooses which commitments it will honor.

[Remi Moses]

Both parties agreed on the split,was reported in both Daily's.

[w3design]

We should be getting Adam Potter on board next season and handing him the job in 2014.

Potter would be ok, but personally given his wider experience, and performance at VFL senior level with Werribee this year, my vote is for Scotty West as 2014 VFL coach.

I also disagree with calling our VFL side W.Bs. With over a hundred years of tradition in the VFA/VFL as Footscray, that should be the ONLY option for the new entities name, especially if it is to play out of the Whitten Oval, which surely is the spiritual home of the Footscray Football Club.
If the club genuinely wants to retrieve some of it's lost ground, and disenfranchised traditional membership base, it should use this opportunity to re-energise it's original supporter base.

The best way for the Doggies, and the other clubs being financially choked to death by their arrangement with the company that manages the Docklands Stadium, would be for the AFL to use some of the $millions they are getting from their broadcasting rights to buy the contract out early, and giving all Docklands based clubs an equal deal on income/costs, and remove the present gross inequities in the arrangements.

Perhaps if the AFL spent more $'s on defending it's constituent clubs, and less on paying exorbitant bonuses/salaries to A.D. and his cohorts, and wasting money on crap like"anti homophobia" adds, and similar garbage, perhaps they would have more funds available for the equalization budget, and debt reduction for the struggling/disadvantaged clubs. I would have though the AFL Commission's reason to exist was to defend and develop the competition and teams rather than social engineering, and 'political correctness'.

[Ghost Dog]

I would pay extra membership to see a Footscray VFL team. Trouble is, I might decide not to go to many AFL games and begin to like the second tier team more! I just like the local feel of VFL sometimes.

[Mofra]

By cashed up clubs who have everything else already in place?

If it can be done right of course it could be a positive but if due to budget constraints we can't attract to the sort of top up players we need to make us competitive I can see a situation where we are in the finals of the AFL but not having our VFL side playing when we need to get some game time into players.

Everything else in place includes a stan-alone VFL side it seems.
Development of players is an important aspect of getting our system right and there is no doubt that removing the competing priority of Williamstown's interest will help our developing types.

[GVGjr]

Everything else in place includes a stan-alone VFL side it seems.
.

So we have our sports science team on the cutting edge with sufficient technology and resources already in place? If so, then why didn't we make this move earlier?

To me it's like a cousin crying poor all the time whinging that they are struggling to manage with the basics of life but then rocking up for a visit with a new car.
You don't begrudge them having a new car but you wonder what else they will now have to go without to pay for it.

I think we could spend some money in a more productive way and this move seems premature and out of sequence of what we should be working towards.

What I don't want to hear in the next 12 months is that we are a mile behind other clubs in terms of sports technology spending and using that as a reason why we are struggling to keep up with other clubs.

The Williamstown alignment was working pretty well. Of course it wasn't 100% but our players were given the opportunity to play. I certainly don't view it as a reason why we haven't performed well and why some of our players struggle with the basics.

[ledge]

So we have our sports science team on the cutting edge with sufficient technology and resources already in place? If so, then why didn't we make this move earlier?

To me it's like a cousin crying poor all the time whinging that they are struggling to manage with the basics of life but then rocking up for a visit with a new car.
You don't begrudge them having a new car but you wonder what else they will now have to go without to pay for it.

I think we could spend some money in a more productive way and this move seems premature and out of sequence of what we should be working towards.

What I don't want to hear in the next 12 months is that we are a mile behind other clubs in terms of sports technology spending and using that as a reason why we are struggling to keep up with other clubs.

The Williamstown alignment was working pretty well. Of course it wasn't 100% but our players were given the opportunity to play. I certainly don't view it as a reason why we haven't performed well and why some of our players struggle with the basics.

What surprised me a few years ago was we were having to pick players straight from VFL reserves into our AFL side,which isn't exactly a good indication of them playing well having to step up 2 grades in a week.
If we go alone that shouldn't be a problem anymore.

[GVGjr]

What surprised me a few years ago was we were having to pick players straight from VFL reserves into our AFL side,which isn't exactly a good indication of them playing well having to step up 2 grades in a week.
If we go alone that shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Which players went from he reserves in the VFL to the AFL Ledge?
Ones coming back from injury?