After deciding to add Victoria's regional leagues to the Statistical History, the first starting point for gathering the necessary data was naturally their websites. To say they were useless is probably being complementary.
The Geelong Region website is an extension of the FFV website. It has no historical section, or roll of honour of previous champions. The results section goes back as far as 2012.
The Sunraysia S-League website is also an extension of the FFV website. The last News item on this site dates back to 03/05/2018. It also has no historical section or roll of honour of previous champions. The results section goes back to 2012 though the score from the 2013 Grand Final has yet to be entered.
The Ballarat and District Soccer Association has it's own website. It's had more than one news item added this year, which is a positive compared to Sunraysia. There are some history records which go back as far as 1995, though there are several gaps of a few years in it. The results section goes back as far as 2012.
The Bendigo Amateur Soccer League site is a sportstg site. It has no historical section or roll of honour of former champions. The results section goes back as far as.... 2017.
The South West Victoria (formerly Warrnambool & District) Soccer League website is also sportstg site, with all other frills like News, Documents, History, Photos section removed. It is strictly fixtures and results, which go back to 2013 again with no final score entered for the 2016 Grand Final.
The Albury Wodonga Football Association has it's own site. News updates are frequent. There is no list roll of honour of former champions, but some historical content can be found. The results section goes back as far as 2013.
The Latrobe Valley Soccer League uses a sportstg site. It had one new news item in 2018. There is no historical section or roll of honour of previous champions. The results section goes back as far as 2016.
The Gippsland Soccer League also use a sportstg site. There's no historical content or roll of honour of former champions, and the results section goes back as far as... 2018. Yes, that far back!
Are these serious football leagues? Will some ever progress from Facebook pages to perhaps having a grown ups website? Is it any surprise that regional NPL teams have so far proven to be a burden upon the competition? Nothing about their websites suggest many of these regions are anything other than backward outposts, not worth bothering with.
Now I don't totally disagree with the sentiment that regional NPL teams have been a burden, but I know that these clubs have done some wonderful things for their respective communities. I'd like to think my local club, the Goulburn Valley Suns, have been competitive at the very least (first year aside), picking up good results against strong teams over the years
ReplyDeleteGVS have been reasonable. Let's not forget they and Ballarat Red Devils were queue-jumped to the top tier to begin with and both went straight down. Ballarat have done little since, apart from fold/rebrand/whatever. Murray have treaded water and Bendigo were an embarrassing basketcase that made the whole league a joke.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that A-League expansion seems set to be restricted to just more Melbourne and Sydney teams. There is no case of practising what you preach from those that have imposed regional teams on the state competitions. Impose may be a bit harsh, but it's an expensive exercise (travel, longer season = more wages to be paid) that has yet to yield much. I guess my feeling that it's a burden also came from seeing Richmond not even bothering to run a gate against regional teams. Any home game where the gate doesn't even cover referee's fees is a burden I guess.
Looking at the way the regional leagues are run I shouldn't be surprised the regional NPL teams have hardly set the world on fire.