Vic footy calling on final reserves

Peter Farago
VICTORIAN football is not dead yet.
For weeks the football media has speculated about the demise of the game in the sport’s heartland, given the dominance of interstate teams in recent years.
Essendon was the last Victorian side to raise the premiership flag in 2000 and Collingwood the last team to represent the state on the last day in September (Although many Victorians barracked for Brisbane on those occasions, rather than support the Magpies).
Some followers claim Brisbane and Sydney premierships were wins for Victorian supporters of old Fitzroy and South Melbourne.
But no-one really believes that, do they?
This year is even worse for local followers, with a Victorian AFL drought that started last weekend extending until tomorrow afternoon’s preliminary final is completed in Adelaide.
The state’s last hopes were put to the sword in Western Australia last weekend.
While the AFL’s agreement to end compulsory finals football at MCG has conspired to ensure Victorians won’t experience their first full finals series since the inception of the national competition, all is not lost for local followers of the Victorian game.
For Geelong fans who were angered and frustrated by their club’s premature departure from the senior competition, there is a consolation prize on offer at Princes Park this Sunday.
The club’s Victorian Football League side has the opportunity to complete a remarkable season turnaround when it takes on Sandringham’s Zebras.
The Cats claimed the VFL’s wooden spoon last year, two years after winning Geelong’s first piece of silverware since 1963.
Of course the VFL flag is not an AFL premiership, given that the league is a rebadged version of the Victorian Football Association, which Geelong departed in 1897 to create the original VFL.
Victoria’s lack of representation on the two biggest weekends of national football turns the focus of the state onto the second competition.
Some of Victoria’s longest-surviving traditional clubs compete in the VFL in front of small crowds at suburban grounds around Melbourne, Geelong and Ballarat.
But what the VFL lacks in the pizzazz and commercialism of an AFL game, it makes up for with the traditional elements that made Aussie Rules such a popular spectacle in the first place.
Like the ability to walk up at 2pm and stand in the outer with a pie in one hand and a tinnie in the other.
Oh, and the ability to go out onto the ground at quarter and three-quarter time to hear the coaches address their players.
But for people who just can’t relate to old-fashioned suburban football clashes, think of Victorian football in another way.
Victoria’s role as the heartland of the game is not just in its clubs, it’s in its contribution to the make-up of the national competition.
Looking at each team’s player list shows that Victoria’s role as the game’s heartland is not at risk.
Some of the game’s best players at interstate clubs are products of Victoria.
It’s just that the draft system and local recruiters opinions have ensured their talents are harnessed in the names of Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland and not Victoria.
Chris Judd is the best example.
The Eagles used its priority pick in the 2001 draft (yes, the Eagles finished 14th that year) to recruit Judd – the third player selected that year.
That’s right, two clubs overlooked a player now considered one of the game’s greatest exponents.
Geelong meets Sandringham in the VFL grand final at Princes Park on Sunday, the day after South Barwon faces St Joseph’s in the Geelong Football League final at Skilled Stadium tomorrow.