THE handicap system that has been the first year of the player points structure across the Bendigo Football-Netball League has done little to change the status quo.
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It’s a handicap system in that the 22 players each club puts out on the field each week is dictated to by the player points they were allocated by AFL Central Victoria, with discrepancies ranging from 36 to 45.
Part of the premise of the player points system is equalisation across competitions, along with stopping the inflationary nature of player payments by discouraging the movement of players and promoting player loyalty and junior development.
Yet as far as equalisation goes this year, the same five teams that made the BFNL top five last year have again made the finals, which kick off at the QEO this weekend.
Sandhurst, Golden Square, Strathfieldsaye and Eaglehawk fill the top four rungs on the ladder, and have done so having been heavily handicapped with their points allocations.
Those four clubs – along with the rebuilding Gisborne – have all been on the most stringent of allocations across the 17 “Premier Community Competitions” throughout regional and metropolitan Victoria with just 36, yet they have continued to set the pace with a combined record of 55-17.
Although, the injury-riddled Storm has come back to the pack given they went through undefeated last season, but have dropped four games in 2016.
And it’s hard to see much changing in coming years given the same four clubs of the Dragons, Bulldogs, Storm and Hawks occupy the top for rungs on the under-18 ladder, showing they have plenty of promising talent – all of which is now more important than ever under the points system – developing in their underbelly.
Meanwhile, the continuing challenges the BFNL’s country clubs have of competing with their city counterparts has again been highlighted across the competition in the spread of finals teams.
Of the 40 finals positions up for grabs across the three football and five netball grades, for the second year in a row 35 have again been filled by city clubs.
• Player points used in home and away season – Kyneton (749/810); Kangaroo Flat (706/774); South Bendigo (698/774); Strathfieldsaye (634/648); Golden Square (618/648); Eaglehawk (617/648); Sandhurst (578/648); Maryborough (546/810); Castlemaine (516/810); Gisborne (409/648).
Luke West – sports reporter