Round 1 VFL - Footscray Bulldogs v Northern Bullants - Saturday 22 March 2025 • 7:10 PM

[Bornadog]

Croft, 4 Goals

[Pleather Sole]

[QUOTE=GVGjr;n1319534]

There are a few around the mark but no one really knocked the door down

Busslinger was quite good but he isn't dynamic with his play. For the right match up he could be worth considering

Genuinely interested in what type of player you think Buss would be a good match up for? Hypothetically if he were to debut against Carlton or Freo?

[Axe Man]

Sad to see

Game over: Historic Victorian club Preston Bullants kicked out of the VFL

The 143-year-old Preston Bullants, a mainstay of the old VFA, have been stripped of their VFL licence, learning of their fate today in a meeting with the AFL.

Historic Victorian club Preston has been booted out of the VFL.

President Neil Howard and other officials learned of the 143-year-old club’s fate in an online meeting with the AFL at 4pm today.

It spells the end for a mainstay of the old Victorian Football Association.

Melbourne barrister Howard and his board, which took over the running of the Bullants four months ago, had asked the AFL for $270,000 to clear debts and help the club reset.

Players, coaches and the ATO are owed money.

The Ants also put in a business plan outlining how they could be sustainable if they could start from scratch in 2026.

But in a meeting with state leagues manager Jennie Loughnan today, Howard was told the club would be losing its VFL licence.

Howard had announced the club would revert to its original name of Preston next year.

It was known as the Northern Blues when AFL club Carlton withdrew from their alignment in 2020.

At the time Northern Blues president Steve Papal said the club would have to close the doors but he and others brought it back in 2021 as the Northern Bullants.

But it has been a struggle on and off the field, with the Ants falling into debt and finishing on the bottom in three of the past four seasons.

This year they won two games, surprising Sydney in Sydney, then rattling home to shock finalist Williamstown at Cramer St.

Howard broke down as he addressed players and supporters after the Bullants’ final-round match against Werribee.

He said no “green light’’ had been given to play on in 2026 and apologised to the coaching staff and players for being let down by previous club administrators.

The Bullants’ financial plight had put a spotlight on the AFL’s lack of support for the so-called standalone VFL clubs.

They no longer receive an annual subsidy of $120,000 - the AFL stopped giving out the grants at the same time as it ceased charging AFL clubs licence fees to play in the VFL.

AFL great James Hird had recently called on the AFL to put money into VFL clubs, saying it would be a “tragedy’’ to lose any of them.

Hird, the director of coaching at Port Melbourne, said the so-called standalone clubs should be given greater financial support to compete in a tier of football vital to the game.

Essendon legend Hird told this masthead the Victorian clubs were “essential to the growth of football and the pathway for kids who don’t great drafted’’.

“For the health of football in Victoria, the standalone VFL clubs need to be supported by the AFL,’’ he said.

“Clearly there are some struggling financially because they don’t have the ability to drive their own revenue streams to the level needed.

“The $120,000 each of those standalone clubs got before Covid has been taken away. It should be put back to ensure the health of football at VFL standalone level.

“To me, clubs that grow their own revenue shouldn’t be penalised. Those clubs have done a great job. Werribee have done an incredible job with their pathways and their financial model.

“But I do believe there should be some subsidies to those VFL clubs to ensure they survive … Preston, Coburg, Werribee, Frankston, Williamstown, Port Melbourne and now Sandringham are historically great clubs. And for any of them to fall over would be a tragedy.’’

Preston’s last premiership was in 1984, when it went back-to-back under the coaching of favourite son and former Collingwood captain Ray Shaw.

[Hotdog60]

Maybe it's time to bring back the reserve's competition and let the stand alone VFL go back as an association. The AFL has caused this because the smaller struggling clubs would face additional financial burden having to travel to play interstate which they didn't have to do before. With the AFL cubs having their own VFL side would make it tough on the stand-alone clubs and make it hard on them being competitive if they weren't a powerhouse at that level.