Season 2010 welcomes in another exciting chapter in the rich history of the Victoria Football League.
It has something for everyone. For the traditionalists there is a return of matches to Victoria Park, the spiritual home of Collingwood, for premiership points.
Further north, on the football frontier land of southern Queensland, Gold Coast enters the competition, albeit for one season. Despite the brevity of its stay, Gold Coast will provide an intriguing dimension.
Closer to home, Coburg Tigers will unveil Highgate Recreation Reserve – an outstanding new facility, which see the club play the bulk of its home games not only this season, but into the future.
As usual, a new season brings with it an array of new coaches, new players and new supporters. Simon Goosey, a decorated player/coach on the Peninsula, assumes the coaching duties at Frankston. David Newett, a premiership coach in Tasmanian and a development coach at North Melbourne for the past two seasons, takes over as coach at Coburg Tigers.
And, we have several coaches from last season – Peter German, Brad Gotch and Shannon Grant – now at different clubs. German and Gotch, effectively, swapped roles at Casey and Williamstown, while Grant moves to Bendigo Bombers.
We welcome aboard all the new players – several hundred, in fact, extending across all clubs – who look to the VFL as a foundation to launch an AFL career or simply test themselves in the best State competition in the country.
Certainly, the opening weeks of the AFL season has provided a ringing endorsement for the VFL with two past Fothergill Round Medallists – Michael Barlow and Jason Davenport – showcasing their talent in such stunning fashion.
While Barlow and Davenport respectively produced match winning performance, they have not been alone in demonstrating just what a fertile breeding ground the VFL is for AFL clubs, especially given the inclusion of Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney and an expanded player pool, in coming years.
Casey Scorpions defender Alex Silvagni, a member of last year’s VFL Team Of The Year, showed he’s most capable at the AFL level in his first two games for Fremantle and Liston Trophy winner James Podsiadly is threatening to break into Geelong’s premiership team.
Season 2010 also brings with it a change in how VFL news will be disseminated to fans with a shift away from the VFL Record to the VFL website – victorianfootballleague.com.au
While the Record will be available each week at the grounds and still carry a weekly bulletin as well as respective club lists, ladder and fixture, all the regular features and more will now appear on our Internet site.
It will provide VFL fans with more immediacy that deadlines of the VFL Record were unable to provide and a greater awareness of the competition.
This season will see the VFL Grand Final revert to its traditional spot on the Sunday before the AFL Grand Final. The match will again be played at Etihad Stadium with the TAC Cup Grand Final played as a curtain raiser.
But, first a challenging, enthralling and unpredictable season awaits. Enjoy.
Last Modified on 07/04/2010 16:40