I thought there might be a lot of people on here interested in this article from the HeraldSun online.

Especially this quote from Steve Harris,

The Demons are concerned the second-tier VFL, where listed players not playing seniors line up with a VFL "sister club", may be slowing the development of emerging talent.

Melbourne chief executive Steve Harris said the alignments had created a "winning agenda versus a development agenda".

"The current second-tier set-up . . . has competing agendas for AFL and VFL clubs and is a competitive imbalance and not sustainable," he said.

I can practically hear people popping champagne corks around this place - Especially all the Newton, Neaves and CJ fans!

its a good point. while sandy is a great team and i wish them well, we are almost better off farming out players to 2-3 teams to let them develop...

i dont see how sandy has ruined players development.

neaves has played first ruck for sandy almost this entire season as a 19 yr old...how is that bad for his development...CJ plays full games for sandy each week, if he was god enough for afl level then he would be starring...

i can understand how people could say that sautner has stunted our k.p forwards' developments abit, but newton seems to be doing fine and still able to kick goals and push for seniorn selection through sandy...

the only players who don't make sandy seniors are guyz like neville and 1st year draftees....and those 1st year draftees almost always push into the senior sandy team by their second year, if not by the end of their first year. Dunn played abit in sandy ressies, and his devlopment has been fine... i think we will say the same for newton in years to come...

lets be honest, if a guy on our list isn't good enough toplay sandy seniors, he isn't good enough for afl level...

Newton should get used to playing second fiddle to a gun forward.

It will be a while before he is a number one forward anywhere, especially at Melbourne.

more the point it seems it will be a while before he ( Newton ) is anywhere at melbourne !!

I don't see Harris' point.

First of all what is the difference between our players playing at Sandy in the VFL and Adelaide players in the SANFL? West Coast players in the WAFL?

Secondly, we can't afford to run a reserves team so why complain about the current situation.

Thirdly, if we didn't have our alliance with Sandy us Melbourne supporters would have had no sucess to get excited about for years.

Developing players through the VFL might not be ideal. But it is the same for all Victorian clubs. Even Collingwood has an affiliate (Geelong are the exception purely because of location).

If the reserves returned, Melbourne will then find itself at a disadvantage, because of the costs involved.

Newton should get used to playing second fiddle to a gun forward.

It will be a while before he is a number one forward anywhere, especially at Melbourne.

Jaded, apart from Neitz who are our key forwards?

Jaded, apart from Neitz who are our key forwards?

Robbo.

And when Neita retires, you can bet that Robbo will take his place at FF and be our number one target until he hangs up the boots (he is only 28, so it could be a while... hopefully!).

Robbo has proven that he can be the main target up forward, in fact, his best seasons were 2003 and 2005 when Neita was mostly out of form.

I don't see Harris' point.

First of all what is the difference between our players playing at Sandy in the VFL and Adelaide players in the SANFL? West Coast players in the WAFL?

There's a huge difference. Adelaide (and Port, Freo and WCE) farm their players off to many different clubs. SANFL Club X won't play Young Gun Y in the position we recruited him to play? Simple, we'll move him off to a different club that will. As a real world example, if we were any of the clubs outside Victoria we wouldn't be seeing the farcical situation we have at Sandy where Newton plays on a wing because Sautner is hogging FF. We can't do anything about it because there's nowhere else Newton could play, where as in the SANFL he could just switch clubs (between seasons, anyway).

The level of control we have over our players at Sandy is significantly less than the interstate clubs have over their developing youngsters. The same applies for any team inside Victoria. It's a big competitive disadvantage.

There's a huge difference. Adelaide (and Port, Freo and WCE) farm their players off to many different clubs. SANFL Club X won't play Young Gun Y in the position we recruited him to play? Simple, we'll move him off to a different club that will. As a real world example, if we were any of the clubs outside Victoria we wouldn't be seeing the farcical situation we have at Sandy where Newton plays on a wing because Sautner is hogging FF. We can't do anything about it because there's nowhere else Newton could play, where as in the SANFL he could just switch clubs (between seasons, anyway).

The level of control we have over our players at Sandy is significantly less than the interstate clubs have over their developing youngsters. The same applies for any team inside Victoria. It's a big competitive disadvantage.

Ok, fair enough.

I personally don't like our CEO bringing up this issue so publically, especially when we are 0-9.

My point is that Melbourne is in the same position as all other Victorian teams. Our current situation does not seem fair compared to interstate sides but I believe we just have to cop it like everyone else.

A reserves competition will expose our lack of resources. Then we won't be worried about Saunter taking Newton's spot at FF. We wil be worried about how we are going to get a side on the paddok to play against other Victorian reserve sides like Collingwood and Essendon.

Things aren't perfect but the VFL affiliates were introduced because a reserve side was unsustainable for Victorian sides. Nothing has changed.

For those who want to see what Harris wrote in its entirety, check out the thread @ http://demonland.nozzs.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=5904

Ok, fair enough.

I personally don't like our CEO bringing up this issue so publically, especially when we are 0-9.

Apparently the Dees have brought it up with the AFL behind closed doors over a period of time.

Only now are they speaking about it publically, because the AFL has stated that there's an imbalance between the Clubs that can't be attributed to normal cycles. The following is an excerpt from Harris' article (link in the thread at the top of this post):

Our club, along with others, has been privately pressing the issue of the competitive opportunities of Melbourne-based clubs for some time. We welcome it now being both formally and publicly on the AFL agenda. If our club had more publicly talked up the issue in recent times, it could readily have been portrayed by some as an "excuse" or a diversion for our on-field performance, or some special bargaining tactic. But we are encouraged that the new Chairman of the AFL, Mike Fitzpatrick, and the CEO, Andrew Demetriou, have both publicly acknowledged that the state of competitiveness of Victorian teams, and the domination of non-Victorian teams is more than cyclical ...

Thanks Rogue.

You're welcome.

The rest of his article is a decent read too.

Michael Newton as far as I know...has not played on the wing at Sandy...sure he gets named there...but that's as far as it goes

Michael Newton as far as I know...has not played on the wing at Sandy...sure he gets named there...but that's as far as it goes

As a Sandy supporter can ND please please pick Newton for the Dees and lets see if the kid is up to it and stop the constant whingeing about Sauntner and Sandy stunting his prospects.

As far as the alliance is concerned I would think most Zebra supporters wouldnt care too much which way the AFL decides to go in the future. Yes its been nice to win flags on the back of some Melbourne players but dont forget the SFC also gives away a lot of its independence and internal club control by not being a stand alone club.

Robbo.

And when Neita retires, you can bet that Robbo will take his place at FF and be our number one target until he hangs up the boots (he is only 28, so it could be a while... hopefully!).

Robbo has proven that he can be the main target up forward, in fact, his best seasons were 2003 and 2005 when Neita was mostly out of form.

Not convinced by that, in 2005 Neitz played 18 games and in '03 he played 22. Robo is not a key forward, he's too short, but if he does play as our main target he is too easily covered.

We need better than a 187cm key forward.

As a Sandy supporter can ND please please pick Newton for the Dees and lets see if the kid is up to it and stop the constant whingeing about Sauntner and Sandy stunting his prospects.

As far as the alliance is concerned I would think most Zebra supporters wouldnt care too much which way the AFL decides to go in the future. Yes its been nice to win flags on the back of some Melbourne players but dont forget the SFC also gives away a lot of its independence and internal club control by not being a stand alone club.

Zeb, what control do they give up? I'm surprised by that because I thought that Sandy ran things as they wanted to.

Melbourne have been excellent as far as Sandy goes....St'Kilda have exertred a lot of control over Springvale/Casey and where has that got them????,,nowhere...Collingwoof have done the same at Williamstown...end result...bugger all for the Magpies....have a look at the Current crop of Melbourne players who have made their name starting off at Sandy...McLean...Jamar...Paul Johnston...Nathan Jones...Brad Green...Colin Sylvia...Matthew Bate...Ricky Petterd...Simon Godfrey...Lynden Dunn....

If that's holding back players development then I'll go he....plus a lot of other players who have come back after being dropped and busted their guts at Sandy...Nathan Brown...Daniel Ward...Paul Wheatley...Robbo...

Melbourne and have great for Sandy....and I reckon vice versa as well...

Melbourne have been excellent as far as Sandy goes....St'Kilda have exertred a lot of control over Springvale/Casey and where has that got them????,,nowhere...Collingwoof have done the same at Williamstown...end result...bugger all for the Magpies....Melbourne and have great for Sandy....and I reckon vice versa as well...

Fair points. But for the Mfc the 'Sandy nursery' for Melbourne's emerging talent is far too limiting.

In his post, Nasher captures a big issue well, and just one of many.

Another article in the HUN today

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/com...5E19742,00.html

"There's no doubt a number of AFL clubs are looking at the option of cutting their alignment arrangements and fielding their own teams so they have total control over their players and more importantly their development," VFL general manager Martin Stillman said.