SWEET VFA - BRING IT BACK

If you've had an eye on this column and the sports pages of the Herald-Sun you'd be aware that I am campaigning to return the VFL to its proper name, VFA. And I can tell you that the list of supporters is growing by the day. But they're not exactly embracing the proposition at VFL headquarters.

'Can't do that. The VFA is a symbol of football violence,' said one official as he emerged from the Williamstown luncheon last week. So who's on the guest list at Willi this Saturday when Mrs Libba's boy, Tony, takes on Mrs Gotch's cherub, Bradley? Gavin Brown and Terry Daniher, of course! And what will they be discussing?

Well, remember how Gavin went to sleep in the middle of the 1990 VFL grand final at the MCG? And remember how those naughty people at the tribunal imagined that Terry 'mum's little Catholic boy' Daniher had somehow made contact in such a way as to cause Gavin to lose consciousness? Yes, that's what the boys will be discussing when Willi president and renowned dog lover Trevor Monti lets them off the leash.

When my 9-year-old son comes home from school and asks me whether I played and coached in the VFL that followed VFA, the VFL that preceded the AFL, or the AFL that followed the VFL you know it's time to restore some sanity. We were supposed to be reading Harry Potter, but I can't get past Coburg's win in the 1926 VFA grand final. At this rate by the time I get to 88/89 I won't even remember the celebrations. It's ridiculous!

And the idea that the VFA was full of thugs whereas the old VFL wasn't is equally as ridiculous. Sure my son reckons Harold Martin's swipe at Sam Kekovich in the 1978 VFA grand final video reminded him of Aragorn cutting off the heads of a hundred blokes form the opposing team in Lord of the Rings. But wait until I show him the VFL brawl at Windy Hill in the 70s. Now that was a fight.

Fancy destroying the name of a competition that began in 1877 and was the place where Collingwood, Carlton, Port Melbourne and Williamstown began. Fancy doing it just because a few blokes played up once in a while. They must have been into the brandy cabinet the night that decision was taken. I'd like to see the breakdown of the vote.

The truth is that many clubs caved in because they were struggling for their survival. But right now they are telling me it was the wrong decision, and I reckon we have the numbers to right the wrong.

Renowned broadcaster and VFA lover, Peter Donegan, gets his first taste of Willi in the middle of winter when he joins Ross Booth and your correspondent on Senator Alston's favourite footy broadcast this Saturday. Gotchy's Seagulls v Libba's Hawks in the middle of a Gothic electrical storm. That's my VFA. .