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Wednesday, 25 September 2019

Anyone Know The Score?

On Sunday, the FV Geelong Region Grand Finals were held. Surfside Waves upset minor premiers Barwon 4-0 in Division One of the men's competition, while Geelong Rangers smashed Deakin Ducks 7-2 in the First Division of the women's competition.

Yet as of the middle of the week, the results in the second and third divisions of the men's competition have still to be entered into the sportstg "results" system.




It seems the Grand Finals do not even merit a new item on the front page of the Geelong Region website.



When some regional federations don't regularly update their websites, they usually maintain a stronger presence on Facebook. Not in the Geelong Region's case. As you can see, the Facebook link on their front page is to Football Victoria's page, which of course has stuff all Geelong content.

If a governing body treats it's competitions with such contempt, is it any wonder crowds and sponsors continue to decline?

The FV State League season ended two and a half weeks ago. As of today, these are the leagues where the final tables are complete:

Mens:

NPL1
NPL1U20
NPL2E
NPL2EU20
NLP2W
NPL2WU20
SL1SE
SL1SE Reserves
SL1NW
SL2SE
SL2NW
SL2SE
SL3SE Reserves
SL3NW
SL3NW
SL4N
SL4S
SL4W
SL4W Reserves
SL5E
SL5S

Womens:

NPLW
NPLWU18
SL1NW
SL1NW Reserves
SL1SE
SL1SE Reserves
SL2NW
SL2SE
SL3E
SL3N
SL3S
SL4E
SL4N
SL5NW
SL5SE

The following men's leagues have tables that are not complete:

SL1NW Reserves
SL2SE Reserves
SL2NW Reserves
SL4E
SL4E Reserves
SL4N Reserves
SL4S Reserves
SL5E Reserves
SL5N
SL5N Reserves
SL5S Reserves
SL5W
SL5W Reserves

The following women's leagues have tables that are not complete:

SL3W
SL4S
SL4W

So that is 21 complete in the mens, 13 incomplete. 15 complete in the womens, with 3 incomplete. 

In the past FFV apologists have pointed to the fact that it is the club's responsibility to enter results. Yet this doesn't account for games like the Dockerty Cup Final, various other Finals and Play-Offs where FV are in charge as the host and fail to enter any information into the system. FV is quick to dock points for late payment of fees (see Moreland City NPL2), but is their service worth paying for?

What is the reason for the tables that are not complete? Have they been played or not? Why wouldn't games have been played? This is not 1950, we have artificial pitches to combat the elements and lights to allow for midweek games. What is with the current forfeit culture in Victorian soccer? It's prevalent in the early FFA Cup preliminary rounds, and still frequent in the State League Grand Finals. Have some not been played for fears of violence between certain teams? 

In Australian Rules football it is just days after the Brownlow Medal, where votes from every game are scrutinised and obsessed over. How many times in recent years have FV ever released the round by round vote counts for their NPL Gold Medals? 

For all the advances in modern technology, there are far too many times when Football Victoria could probably have been outperformed by a part-timer from the Victorian Amateur Soccer Football Association and some carrier pigeons.

                                                Click on images to enlarge