Northern Bullants to return to VFL as a stand-alone club
The structure and even the name of the VFL have yet to be locked in but the AFL has confirmed one of the league’s oldest clubs will be back as a stand-alone next year.
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The AFL will wait until after its grand final before unveiling details of the remodelled VFL for 2021.
The league sent licence offers to clubs last Friday and with them a request to hold off on making any major announcements.
The clubs must now confirm their participation in a competition that will take in clubs from Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
But the AFL confirmed yesterday that all the Victorian stand-alone clubs had been offered licences, including the Northern Bullants, who had been aligned with Carlton as the Northern Blues.
Under the presidency of Steve Papal and the coaching of former Collingwood star Josh Fraser, the Ants will return to stand-alone status for the first time since 2002.
Six months ago Papal had declared they would have to close the doors when Carlton suddenly ended the clubs’ alignment.
The Bullants will operate as Preston Football Club and trade as the Northern Bullants, reclaiming a nickname synonymous with a club formed as Preston in 1882.
North Melbourne premiership defender and former Fremantle and Carlton head of football Steven Icke is chief executive officer and former AFL Victoria president Bob Tregear has joined the board.
The AFL also confirmed that NEAFL affiliates Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, GWS, Southport, Aspley and Sydney University had been invited to a competition that will be the largest second-tier league in the country.
Up to 20 clubs could participitate: the AFL stand-alones, VFL stand-alones, AFL-VFL aligned and former NEAFL clubs.
Salary caps have been ticked off: $100,000 for the AFL stand-alone and aligned clubs, and $200,000 for the other stand-alone clubs.
A name change remains a possibility given that three states will be represented in the league.
In its communication to clubs the AFL is referring to it as the “VFL/East Coast Competition’’.
It’s believed the competition will run for 16 rounds and kick off in mid to late-April, depending on COVID-19 restrictions.
Officials will try to limit travel to two to three trips per clubs, with teams preferably flying in and flying out on the same day.
Meanwhile the zones proposed by the AFL for the Victorian clubs are likely to be tweaked before they are introduced.
They are seen as a way of strengthening the clubs’ ties with the NAB League teams and promoting the pathway between the under-age league and the VFL.