Reckon Green Gully has be the cheapest rates of any NPL clubs. Only $450 for kids from Under 12 to under 18. What are other clubs charging?

Sorry Heckler. If you thought that the FFV was going to run the NPLV strictly according to the new criteria (including facilities) and to the licencing agreement then you are kidding yourself. That died in the courts with an injunction in September. What we have now is a version of the NPLV that will suit the FFA and their finals series plus the roll out of the FFA Cup. It also suits the FFV as they will have 28 x 40k deposited into their account as well as merchandising rights and IP rights for all of the clubs. It also suits traditional clubs who need to keep fighting to keep their clubs alive and try to prolong/ protect their futures. Some are well prepared and others are poorly resourced like the example you mentioned.

As I keep saying, it is what it is and by 2015 the goalposts will change again and clubs will either flourish, stagnate or in some cases fall by the wayside. Surfcoast FC for example didn't even kick a ball in the NPLV. Now they have no licence and are battling to keep their community club from going into freefall.

NPLV a joke? maybe...It was not going to be much more than that in 2014. We just need to get the season started and hope that the damage is limited. FFV Board elections due in 2015. Need a new one with plenty of constitutional reform included. Here's hoping....

How can you enjoy the season if thereis double standards? There is a criteria is there for a reason. 70% of clubs don't meet it. Facilities are a shambles most don't have the juniors etc... There is only 5 clubs that meet the criteria.Heidelberg for example did not pay their players after round 8. What stability is that? As I mentioned before there are club that play on open paddocks and have cricket pitches in the middle of the ground it is open park land and yet they are NPL.

It's a joke.

FFV is a joke and I will never watch local football again. This is why crowds will be lucky with 50people watching.

=d>

Heckler and UTMP bring up valid points. However reality says that the FFA instructed the FFV on how to form the NPLV for 2014. Remember the FFV wanted to postpone it in 2014 and maintain the status quo. Things below the surface are always playing out. FFV relatively impotent in this NPLV structure and FFA needed Vic on board for the FFA Cup which is announced tomorrow probably with a major sponsor.

As I see it there are NPLV clubs who will do a good job of it across the board. They have the facilities, the programs, the resources, the coaches, solid admin and an abundance of trialists for each section of their clubs - SAP, pre- juniors, juniors, youth and seniors. These clubs have already hit the ground running well and truly before Christmas. Then there are those clubs that are in transition from community club to NPLV club and are playing 'catch up' to meet the requirement of their licencing agreements and making it up as it goes along. They have bought time during the 2014 season to get their shit together and hope all issues and requirements are up to speed by the end of October in readiness for 2015. Some will excel at it, others will struggle or have limited resources to continue. Then you have the 'strugglers' who have poor facilities, poor arrangements with their councils or are not up to the standards required across all areas at NPLV level.

It's time for our FFV to pull their fingers out of their clackers and work with all licence holders to guide them to comply with all facets of their agreements. It's not about just handing over the 40k and if you fall over the next club on the list gets a gig. For it to be successful a benchmark needs to be set across all areas of the agreement for clubs to emulate or learn from each other.

A NPLV Management group needs to be set up for the football side (all club TD's involved) and another one for admin and off the park issues ( facilities/admin/community programs/marketing) so clubs can work together collectively to improve the standard of the NPLV and give all our players, coaches, clubs and stakeholders a product that they can be proud of.

We need to start somewhere. Interesting year ahead no doubt. Enjoy your season everybody. More importantly, continue to love the game!! :)

It could have been so simple.

Then you have all these new clubs like Surf Coast run by mums and dads that are not club people they put the bait in and pull out. How can you have faith in 3 year old clubs vs established clubs. The councils have built new grounds in high growth areas only to limit newly formed clubs to use the facility through an allocation policy. Most of these facilities are shared with cricket. How can these clubs be serious about NPL vs established clubs.

I still think the transition should have been rebranding VPL and SL1 to NPL and then giving them 3 year period to meet the criteria whilst other clubs in the lower leagues that aspire for NPL should have gone via promotion process and meeting the criteria with juniors etc.

The FFV handed many clubs promotion on a platter to many clubs that don't deserve to be part of it.

What a mockery the FFV have made this it was so easy to follow the other state model.

Since looking at the NPL structure I will now refuse to go to any games at any level and will resort to watching epl on foxtel.

The FFV stick it up your cracker and Cherio to football run by the FFV.

It raised more questions than answers. This whole NPL thing has cause me untold grief and has drained me the last few weeks.

As a parent and a coach, I am torn between missing out and stay or moving on? Lucky my son still has a couple years to go before juniors, but so many clubs are given the license but don't have everything in place?

The circus continues with the NPLV model, right from the first model till now it is a joke. How can a NPL club like Avendale Heights who's ground has a cricket pitch in the middle during winter they put sand on it, their ground is opened and not fenced off. Brunswick City is another mob, facilities are a shambles. 70% of clubs don't meet the criteria and yet they find themselves in the NPL. Then you have some of these clubs re-registering new clubs to to keep their b team juniors etc. what's the point of having a criteria?

then I checked the state league structure and guess what? These so called community clubs the are paying the same affiliate league fees and player registration as last season. I did the numbers and the costs, it will cost more to run a community club then and NPL club.

How can this be? The reality is clubs need to start looking at the vicsoccer structure as it is more affordable.

ranges are playing out of epping stadium.. i meant raiders will be playing out of partridge st but i agree it aint the best facility going around..

Partridge Street is not fit for State league 3 let alone NPL. Mind you a lot of other clubs have similar sub-standard grounds.

also whittlesea ranges have set up thomastown raiders they will play out of partridge st

Well if this is true its one of the reasons the Eastern Lions pulled out because of the displacement and need to get a community team up and running in a short space of time!!

wasnt this part of the reason that Box Hill signed on in the end in regards to maintaining of junior numbers

Wtf

I heard Dandy City will keep all their juniors for this year and start of a community club in 2015, Box Hill claim to keep an extra 150 juniors because of the NPLV rules changes and FFV say neither can be done if your an NPL club, bloody confusing???

Dandy Thunder has set up South Dandy as their community team. I know of another club thats in the process of doing it

Im not defending them, dont get me wrong, lots of teams have to travel.

On a seperate note how many of these NPL and NPL1 teams have set up seperate Community Teams to cater for the displaced teams? All I know of is Oakleigh setting up Chisolm United?

You mean like the North Queensland teams do to Brisbane?

A major part of the problem with implementation of the NPLV is the confilct of "Vision" that the three major participants have of the NPL, the FFA, the FFV and the Participant Clubs.

This issue will continue as facts on the ground start to play a role, hence the withdrawal of Eastern Lions and Surf Coast FC. Issues such as Council Support, Finances, Participant Costs, Club Cultural Issues, Administrative Abilities, Geographic Regional Capabilities and future issues such as Club Ownership which willbe a real Tsunami.

The FFA's vision of the NPL is a Sydney Centric one and forced on the rest of the country without variation for the facts on the ground.
On top of that the FFV has had its own Vision of the future for the game with its "Summer league" proposals of 2008 marrying those with the FFA Vision of the NCR and NPL.

Of Course the Clubs have their own Vision of what the NPL is about and certainly not in a unified view, with a disconnect of VPL and aspiring VPL Clubs, Mid ranked Clubs and Lower ranked Clubs.

These competeing Visions are creating "conflict" that has yet to be resolved.



Edited by Arthur: 21/2/2014 11:34:52 AM

This is only for the juniors that this set up is being used. Say for example Melbourne Knights are playing Bendigo. Therefore all relevant age groups for Knights juniors would be playing at Bendigo on the same day in the first half of the season.

I dont think the juniors are playing the same team as the seniors, they run on a different geographic schedule/fixture?

At the end of the day, its only semi professional and to take out an entire day when 80% is travelling is a hard thing for young players who are studying and working as well. Not a lot of thought has gone into this obviously, although Im sure the other clubs would be happy not to travel to Torquay.

Both.

I understand the FFV wanting a state wide comp but if it isn't going to happen, forcing it isn't going to help.

In which sense?

Clubs pulling out, or the competition set up as a whole?

travelling an excuse? Come on? If the club is honest it would organise with Benders a bus for the team when they are travelling to away games to help parents out, considering for the first half of the season the entire club junior would be playing at the same place, clubs should be taking this as an opportunity for the visiting club to come in one hit and make it a "carnival day" of sorts. Help build good relationships between clubs in the leagues.

Well this is a disgrace.

Apparently OUT, dont blame em, imagine travelling that far every second week?

Surf Coast in or out?

should have been the only number if everything was right. If we are going to be honest, 22. Ten team top divi with second tier of 12. Considering its first past the post, having a Top 5 would have been a waste of time.

Feel for clubs like Eastern Lions to a degree. Hamstrung by councils....What makes me laugh was that some councils were prepared to bank roll the licence fee on behalf of their municipalities NPLV club and others have a NPLV presence on club boards. Then there is the complete opposite where councils only want their grounds used strictly for community clubs. Luck of the draw!!
Like the previous poster said if you rely on help from the FFV you are absolutely kidding yourself. Couldn't organise a chook raffle let alone administer the game like they should for all their stakeholders. Invoices and fines come out quickly and readily enough to clubs but to actually get something done is near on impossible.

No replacement clubs in my view just a rejig. There may be more clubs pulling out. Wouldn't be surprised. IMO 24 clubs would have been the right number in 2014.

you expected their help? They're too busy now trying to figure out a way to still get the 40k out of Eastern FC even though they didn't sign up.