When former Footscray and South Melbourne player Peter Morrison took over as Stratford coach for the 2011 season, the club was at the crossroads.

Former Lake Boga player Rod Ewart still vividly remembers the Sunday session that proved to be the turning point in the Magpies' 2003 season.

The Creswick footy club, which is located 20 kilometres north of Ballarat, spent more than two decades trying to move away from its much-maligned former home ground, Hammon Park.

Last winter AFL Victoria development officer Tim Shearer was chatting to a group of TAC Cup players from the North Ballarat Rebels when the topic of women's football came up. ''A few of the boys had a bit of a snigger about it,'' Shearer recalled.

In the lead-up to the first round of the Colac and District league season, Western Eagles coach Marc Carson was buoyant.

WHEN it comes to playing footy on Good Friday, bush leagues have led the way. Despite the AFL's refusal to schedule matches, trailblazing leagues like the Murray and Goulburn Valley have been fixturing games on Good Friday for the best part of a decade, with big crowds flocking to see the contests.

Given he turns 63 in September, Phil Carman would be excused if he just wanted to be a spectator these days, watching footy matches from the comforts of a glassed-in social room with a lager in hand.

Unveiling a premiership flag is usually a joyous occasion. But the ceremony held at the Underbool Recreation Reserve, in the heart of Victoria's Mallee region, was centred around reflection rather than celebration.

Putting aside more than six decades of animosity was never going to be a walk in the park. But the people overseeing the merger of Hamilton's two football-netball clubs found themselves breathing easier when more than 300 people turned up to vote on the new entity's name, nickname and colours last October.

Just a month after the 2012 Bendigo league season reached its conclusion, rumours began circulating that the competition's perennial struggler, Kyneton, was facing yet another battle for survival. Whispers of a player exodus abounded, and the news that former Hawthorn forward Nathan Thompson and local legend Derrick Filo would not be staying on as co-coaches did nothing to quell them.