Melbourne will retain its affiliation with VFL club Casey as AFL braces for talent overhaul
Following decisions from Carlton and Hawthorn on their VFL alignments, Melbourne has also made a call on its future with Casey. The decision comes as big changes are on the horizon for the second tier competition.
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Melbourne will retain its affiliation with VFL club Casey as clubs brace for an overhaul to reduce costs.
The Demons have enjoyed a productive link with Casey and have no plans to sever it despite Carlton ditching the Northern Blues as its VFL partner last week.
Carlton saw that as a significant cost saving, given it paid coach Josh Fraser and a Northern Blues general manager but the Demons and Hawthorn plan to keep their VFL affiliates.
If list sizes are cut to 35 next year — and potentially 30 by 2022 — clubs would need somewhere for top-up players to play in anticipation of adding them to the list during the season.
That would ideally be an affiliate club at which players could share the same coaching as the AFL team.
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Melbourne’s link to Casey goes deeper than the VFL team. It is 10 years into a 30-year agreement with the council and trains at the Casey Fields precinct.
Clubs are bracing for the league to review all its pathways, including club academies, Irish recruits, Category B rookies and the state-league systems.
A regularly proposed 18-club second-tier competition involving all AFL clubs or even a revamped NEAFL competition would involve more travel and be expensive.
Port Adelaide fears for the future of its SANFL club, and stand-alone VFL clubs hope the AFL does not turn the VFL into a 10-club competition with only AFL reserves teams involved.
Former Port Melbourne and North Melbourne footballer David King called on the AFL to preserve the history of old VFA-VFL clubs after Preston went out of business after 138 rich years.
Melbourne will not abandon plans to expand its facility, which will house all its staff in one building, but right now it’s in “survival mode” to help its staff.
Like Collingwood, the Dees are trying to pay a portion of staff salaries in the coming months. Some staff are working one or two days a week.
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Melbourne bosses Gary Pert and Glenn Bartlett made clear the club’s plans to support its staff in an open letter at the weekend.
“We have put several wellbeing programs in place, and our club psychologists and doctors are working with our administration staff and coaches to help us all through this difficult period,” they wrote.
“Financially, we are supporting our people where we can, through a combination of annual leave and other leave measures. While this does not completely alleviate the difficult decisions that have had to be made, it will still ensure staff receive some financial support during this time.”