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GISBORNE’S building of its list for the 2019 Bendigo Football-Netball League season seems to be encompassing all that AFL Victoria set out to achieve when it introduced its state-wide player points system for 2016.
Firstly, invest games into your local talent and create a culture whereby those one-point players want to stay given retention is so crucial under the player points structure.
The Bulldogs have clearly done that given they have by far used the least number of average player points per game across the 2016, 2017 and 2018 seasons of just 27.7.
Compare that to the rest of the BFNL over the three years of the player points system – Sandhurst (30.2), Castlemaine (31.8), Golden Square (32.7), Maryborough (33.2), Eaglehawk (33.5), Strathfieldsaye (34.1), Kangaroo Flat (35.3), Kyneton (38.5) and South Bendigo (39.3).
One of the key pillars of AFL Victoria’s Community Club Sustainability Program in which the player points is one of the components is to “promote player loyalty and junior development.”
And secondly, have a strong recruiting emphasis on trying to lure past players back to the club. Again, what the Bulldogs have been able to do so far in that regard during the off-season is a massive tick.
Pat McKenna (four years in the AFL with GWS Giants and Melbourne); Casey Summerfield (former captain, best and fairest, BFNL inter-league player); Scott Walsh (2012 Micheslen medallist, best and fairest, BFNL inter-league player); and Tim Walsh (best and fairest, BFNL inter-league player) are all returning to Gardiner Reserve in 2019.
All four guns are one-point players to add valuable experience to an already exciting young list that this year made the finals for the first time since 2014, while the club also won the under-18 premiership in what is another strong sign for the future.
The Bulldogs are in the rare position of having three former AFL-listed players in coach Clinton Young, McKenna and Matt Goodyear, who between them add up to just five combined player points next year in what shapes as a season where the Bulldogs look to have the capacity to make a serious impact on the BFNL.
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