Many players on the move have genuine reasons, but many have obviously been influenced by one factor – money.
Hard cash rules in football these days whether you like it or not.
Being from the old school it is difficult and intriguing to digest at times.
In my almost 200 games with Kyabram in the 1960s and 1970s it wouldn’t have entered my head to ask for money to play football.
I wasn’t good enough to even entertain the thought that I should have been rewarded with hard cash to play with my home club and represent my home town.
I got a $700 provident fund pay-out from the club when my playing days with Kyabram – which stretched for nearly 10 years – were over.
It equated to about $4 a game – the equivalent of about four beers a game in those days.
Some paid players worth their salt can get up to three times that provident fund amount in one game these days.
It seems a ridiculous amount in many cases, but all I can say is good luck to any player who can and does.
Attitudes and focuses have changed dramatically since my playing days.
Club loyalty was everything back then.
You were proud to play with the town and district you grew up in and most of your teammates were very close friends.
Bonding sessions weren’t needed back then.
You were treated like a leper by home supporters if you switched clubs, particularly if a financial reward was the motivating factor for your decision to move clubs.
My only reservation about players getting outrageous financial rewards for shifting allegiances these days is whether they can play at their premium every week to justify how much they are getting paid.
It's a conscience thing, but I realise attitudes have changed dramatically since my time in the game.
Loyalty is now no longer the main influence on where players want to play.
If a talented player can earn in one game of football what he makes in a week working in his employment why should he be denied that chance?
Playing football for money can make it that much easier to set yourself – particularly if you have a young family – up for the rest of your life and that’s an opportunity too hard to ignore or resist.
So to all those players out there getting generously paid for their footy prowess, I can only say good luck to them.
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Barooga Football Club is Picola District Football Netball League-bound on a decisive vote by members last week.
A Murray Football Netball League club since 1988 after moving originally from the Picola District league, Barooga has fallen on hard times on-field in recent years and members think it’s a better fit for a minor league rather than a major league.
With members voting 122 in favour and only nine against the step down, it is clear supporters believe Barooga’s move is in the best interests of the club’s future and, after all, that’s what really counts.
Barooga’s move also raises the question whether the Picola District league may look again at being a two-tier league.
Barooga’s entry has swelled the league to 16 clubs which raises the question whether clubs would entertain a two-tier competition which existed before it returned to a one-league competition in 2018.
League operations manager Shane Railton said the clubs would be consulted on whether they were in favour of a two-tier league, but the league’s board would have the final say.
But he said no decision would be made until the 2027 season and next year 16 clubs would be fighting for the premiership.
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Heathcote District Football League has added another tier to its football roster for the 2026 season.
An under-15 competition is being introduced with the approval of the AFL Regional Council and Bendigo Junior Football League.
The change has been made to strengthen the development pathway for young players while assisting clubs to identify and nurture talent earlier.
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Noticed Kyabram and the Goulburn Valley’s best sportsman of the 2000s Paul Newman was back doing what he has done so well for the past 20 years in the summer months.
Playing cricket.
And making runs and plenty of them.
The 41-year-old pulled on the creams for the first time this season for Kyabram Fire Brigade in a recent game in the Goulburn Murray B-grade competition and showed he still had it with a blazing knock of 116 not out.
And I’m told the man they call Paulo will vouch that he’s got a few more creaking bones and painful muscles from when he last picked up a bat.
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