Wednesday, 15 October 2025

 Nathan LAMBERT (Preston) (10:07): On 6 October the AFL announced that they were revoking the VFL licence of the Preston Bullants, and I believe they did so in a way that sought to maximise the chances that a club that has been part of the Preston community for 143 years would no longer exist. I do not understand what the AFL are doing with the standalone VFL clubs. As people observe, there are effectively three types of clubs: there are AFL seconds teams, which are heavily cross-subsidised by their parent clubs; there are clubs that are heavily cross-subsidised by their pokie operations; and then there are the other standalone clubs, which are at a permanent financial disadvantage. Some cynics certainly suggest that as those clubs inevitably go through their ups and downs and finish on the bottom of the ladder, as one of them usually does, the AFL will, one by one, knock them off.

As we said to the AFL during conversations about the club’s future in 2023, it seems to us at least that they need to make one of two decisions: either they are going to permanently subsidise those standalone VFL clubs to recognise their role in the history and diversity of the game, or else they need to re-establish a statewide Victorian competition which would have lower costs and a level playing field. We can talk about the specifics of the Bullants, and we will do so, but most importantly, first and foremost, we call upon the AFL again to make one of those two decisions in order to give those traditional standalone clubs a secure long-term future.