Our old VFL recruiting zones?

[mightytiges]

I was looking at the AFL site and they're going to show in the next few days what players each club would've got if the old zoning system was still in place. Apparently our old zones are still the worst  .

I know Glen Waverley and Mildura were ours. Does anyone remember what the others were?

[wayne]

I saw that as well.

Collingwood would have Cotchin if there was still zoning.

[Ox]

Clayton and S/Vale ?

[cub]

I am in Mooroolbark and they were Carltank.

  @ couldn't get any more detached than that ....

  in 09

[Fluffy Tiger]

I think Springvale would of been South Melb back in the day. I played at Noble Park and Dingley and they were both Swans. (it was a long time ago so take that into account when using this fact)

I know my younger days at Oakleigh was Tiger zone and I know Essex Heights (Glen Waveley) was.

Sure would be interesting to see who would come from what zone now days.

[Smokey]

A large chunk of the northern region from Swan Hill up to Mildura was Richmond's.  We did pretty well from it during the 70's.  I lived in Bendigo at the time and that was Carlton's zone - that was a golden leg-up for the cheats - a very strong zone.

[one-eyed]

There's a history of VFL/AFL recruiting systems here:
History of Player Recruitment, Transfer and Payment Rules in the Victorian and Australian Football League

Metropolitan Zoning was introduced after WWI.

The Depression affected football considerably. The VFL was concerned about ‘excessive payments’ being offered to players and in March 1930 introduced the Coulter Law, which restricted individual player payments to three pounds a match. Not all VFL clubs were able to pay the maximum of £3 per player but some clubs were able to (and did) pay above the maximum. Only Carlton, Collingwood and Richmond were in strong financial position during the 1930s. Dyer received from Richmond supporters twice as much again as he earned from the Coulter payment.

Country zoning was implemented in 1967, so from the 1968 season country recruits were zoned to a particular VFL club. The allocation was a matter of pot luck, literally. Club names were placed in the Premiership Cup and the 12 zones in its lid, and a draw conducted........ St Kilda, Carlton, Footscray and North Melbourne seem to have fared best. The zones theoretically the ‘weakest’ have gone to Geelong, South Melbourne, Hawthorn and Richmond.

Minor changes to country zones were made in 1972, the aim being to create zones which contained roughly the same number of young males. The criteria used by the VFL to determine the boundaries were local government boundaries; the spread and density of population; and the age distribution of the population over all regions. The quality of zones varied considerably and some VFL clubs were unhappy with their allotted zone......... Richmond have gained nothing in addition to the poor Sunraysia League and would lose the Mallee to Essendon."

[bojangles17]

Id love to know who the genius was who created these lop sided zones...How on earth could the baren parts of sunraysia compete with the relative riches of Bendigo , Ballarat and Geelong by comparison in producing players.

I would suggest for every registered aussie rules player in Mildura there are at least 4 or 5 in Geelong...gee, wonder what area Id prefer to have

[mightytiges]

The zones were meant to be rotated every couple of years to even things up but it never happened. Of course the clubs with the strong zones didn't want things to change. Richmond in the 70s wasn't popular with the VFL or the other clubs (which lead to our "us against the world" attitude) so they weren't going to do us any favours.

The Hawks were given dream Metro zones. Assumption College which has almost been a footy school over the years plus Frankston/Mornington Peninsula. No wonder they dominated the 70s and 80s.

[one-eyed]

Tigers who would've ended up elsewhere under a zone system ....

Adelaide:  Shane Edwards, (Brad Ottens)

Brisbane: Nathan Foley, Andrew Raines ........ no Luke McGuane?

Carlton: Browny, Andrew Collins

Collingwood: Jake King, Trent Cotchin

http://www.afl.com.au/News/NEWSARTICLE/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=71149

[one-eyed]

continued...

Essendon: Kane Johnson

Fremantle: Alex Rance

Geelong: -

Hawthorn: Chris Newman, Shane Tuck, Troy Simmonds

http://www.afl.com.au/News/NEWSARTICLE/tabid/208/Default.aspx?

[bushranger]

As it has been said Mildura was zoned to Richmond. And there are still heaps up here that are true followers but I'm not sure of the membership from here though, all I know is I'm one. It would be interesting to know. They should have kept the zones in place I think.

[yellowandback]

I grew up in the Waverley area and as a kid going to the local footy clinic, it was great to be a Tiger fan and having Barry Rawlings and Robert Wiley presenting the junior awards at the pie nights. Helped make me a long suffering Tiger for life!

[wayne]

Here is our team:

RICHMOND
B: Josh Hunt, Bret Thornton, Matthew Laidlaw
HB: Jordan Lisle, Joel Bowden, Robert Gray
C: Colin Sylvia, Andrew Carrazzo, Matthew Richardson
HF: Chris Tarrant, Brad Fisher, Corey Jones
F: Robbie Tarrant, Jack Riewoldt, Nick Gill
Ruck: Angus Graham, Richard Tambling, Ben McGlynn
Inter: Todd Goldstein

It’s fair to say that the Richmond side was the toughest team to work out with this project. Even with extensive research and maybe some blurring of the zone boundaries, we could not even scrape a full team together and only have one player on the interchange.

Again this is because Richmond’s zone was largely based in the inner-city which wouldn’t give them any players in the modern era. Instead, the whole team has come from Richmond’s other metropolitan area in the south-east suburbs (Waverley area) and its country zone which is in the Sunraysia area in north-west Victoria.

The Tigers were helped by father-son selections Joel Bowden and Matthew Richardson as well as Richard Tambling and Jack Riewoldt who both came from states and territories that weren’t zoned.

Even with a limited selection, there is still talent in this side and no shortage of tall forwards.

http://afl.com.au/tabid/208/default.aspx?newsid=71153

[bushranger]

I watched Josh Hunt. Colin Sylvia and the Tarrant boys play and they were special players here.
But I didn't see much of McGlynn.
This such a good area for player to develop then move down to Melbourne of do the Pioneer team or is it the Bendigo team.
little unsure where they do go but it helps them develop more moving away. Though the daughter never like Chris she has nothing nice to say about him. But that is between them two and not me.
And I think that you will find the Bowdens have or did have ties here to. But on that I'm a little unsure of it now though.