Aaron’s comment and a discussion I had today made me think about the state of country football.
You read and hear about the success stories and sometimes about the total failures, but you don’t often learn about the clubs that are struggling. And there are many of them.
I’m now in Mount Gambier, which has four clubs in the Western Border Football League. Struggling clubs Millicent and Heywood are not that far away. The other league clubs are from Portland and Hamilton.
Population, players and money are the wheels that make a club go round. In my experience, a country club needs at least two of those attributes to be successful.
Money by itself doesn’t work. Big towns without a cashed-up club aren’t necessarily successful. Having lots of players is no good if they are no good and you don’t have a leader (usually paid).
Aaron writes about the sad state of Myrtleford. I said to a colleague today that Millicent reminds me of Myrtleford. They both have a population of around 4000 people, they are both the Saints and they are both forestry towns.
Myrtleford used to get a lot of money from the tobacco industry, and I assume that’s dried up since the industry shut down. Farmers often used to donate a bale to the club.
Myrtleford always struggled to win players from neighboring minor league clubs and Millicent faces the same dilemma.
The minor league clubs are often cash rich thanks to a local benefactor or industry and they don’t require players to train as hard. A skillful player can be a star in a minor league without much effort, but would otherwise have to compete to hold a place in a major league team.
I believe the Victorian and South Australian country football authorities have to prohibit player payments in minor leagues, apart from coaches.
They should also zone every minor league club to a major league club and give the major league club selection rights over players.
Major league clubs should all have to operate under a salary cap, including a minimum and maximum spend. This should be subject to a proper audit.
That may lead to some mergers, but if it leads to a more sustainable competition that would be a good result.
