Victorian Amateur Football Association: clubs feeling the pinch as players head off on mid-season holidays

As winter sets in across Melbourne, an annual problem for VAFA footy clubs raises its ugly head — overseas holidays. One club has had a staggering 107 players at training as a result.

As winter sets in across Melbourne, an annual problem for VAFA footy clubs raises its ugly head.

Players taking mid-season holidays tortures amateur teams and has coaches scrambling to fill positions on the field.

Premier club Old Brighton has been more affected than most this season. After eight rounds, it was sitting pretty with a 7-1 record.

The Tonners then had 15 players disappear on holidays and, along with injuries, some 25 players were unavailable for selection.

In the month of June alone the club suffered three losses, one of those a 72 -point belting by the bottom-placed St Bedes/ Mentone and another a 107-point capitulation to Old Scotch.

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“The players taking holidays has escalated over the past two or three years,” longtime Tonners stalwart, and former president, Peter Grant said. “It’s something that happens every year around the June/July school holidays and players head off to the sun.

“It used to be the snow, now they go overseas.

“We call it the airport virus and between that and injuries, all clubs are affected but we seemed to have had a rough time of it this year.”

Old Brighton has been hit hard by departures for overseas holidays.

Heading into round 16, the Tonners have almost righted the ship and, with suntanned players now flooding back to the club, they have won two games on the trot and are currently third — just a couple of wins shy of the double-chance.

Bernie Dinneen, in his first year in charge of Old Trinity Grammarians, has never seen anything like it in football.

“I coached at Bayswater and East Ringwood in the Eastern Football League and it’s just not the same,” he said.

“In those leagues players don’t get paid if they don’t play, so its incentive to stay and have your holidays in summer.

“It’s been a real issue this year and we’ve had up to 16 or 17 players away at any one time and 12 of those could be first team players.

“Next year we will plan accordingly and make sure our behaviour matches our words.

“Old Trinity have never won a Premier football flag and we need to change something if we want to do that and I think communication early in the year will be a key to avoiding this situation happening again.”

Old Trinity coach Bernie Dinneen has had to juggle several players heading on holiday. Picture: Chris Eastman

Dinneen said it wasn’t just the time away from the club that affected the team’s performance.

“If players have an extended trip away, they come back unfit and they get injured or at the very least take weeks to get their form back,” he said.

Below the top flight, the story isn’t much different.

Kade Pargeter, coach of Division 3 side Hawthorn, said he needed to finetune his telemarketing skills.

“Between injuries and players away on holidays, we have had 107 blokes train with us this season, and that’s just for two teams,” he said.

“We really get affected by school holidays and, each week, we need to get on the phone and chase players and we are lucky to have a few well-connected guys at the club who help get players to fill in.”

Hawthorn has had a staggering number of players attend training this year due to unavailability. Picture: Stuart Milligan

St Kevin’s was another Premier club affected by the mid-season mass exodus.

Former Western Bulldog and current SKOBs coach Tom Williams, while unhappy with the situation, suggested there was a silver lining to the midwinter blues.

“It’s been a big issue for us this season but we had to look further afield to fix the problem and we have unearthed some good young players that normally might not have been given a go,” he said.

“Those players are potentially in our best 22 now.

“It almost forces you as a coach to develop and restructure the team earlier in the season.”

It’s been suggested that the VAFA introduce a two-week mid-season break to allow for the player drain. When that happens is another issue.

At present, there seems to be no quick fix to what is a widespread problem and for VAFA coaches, one that makes a tough job tougher.