FOOTBALL/NETBALL
By LIAM DURKIN
AS Brian Dixon screamed to the Melbourne masses in 1996 – “no merger!”
While combining Melbourne and Hawthorn nearly 30 years ago might have made economic sense, the passion of both member bases was enough to see any such proposal defeated.
That same passion runs all the way down to country football and netball, and North Gippsland Football-Netball League member clubs responded to the possibility of joining the Gippsland League in similar fashion to those against the ‘Melbourne Hawks’ all those years ago.
With the Gippsland League exploring the possibility of creating a second division competition, clubs in surrounding areas have been identified as possible suitors.
It should be absolutely stressed the Gippsland League has made no formal proposal for 2025.
Under the current Gippsland League strategic plan implemented in 2022, a key action area was to establish sub-committees to explore specific potential areas of growth for the Gippsland League, including expansion of the current competitions offered.
Last month, the Gippsland League Board of Management moved to create an internal working group to examine possible actionable areas of concern, opportunity or growth and sustainability for the pathways and competitions offered by the Gippsland League.
As part of this project, some key areas to review will include current Gippsland League football and netball competitions, female football and the potential of additional Gippsland League offered competitions.
The review commenced this month and is expected to be completed by the end of October.
Following the review, any recommendations will be assessed by the league’s Board of Management.
“Including around the current information circulating that Gippsland League will be creating a second division for season 2025,” the league released in a statement on Monday.
That being said, North Gippsland clubs have been quick to confirm their allegiance to the NGFNL.
At a meeting held last Wednesday (July 17), all 11 North Gippsland member clubs indicated they would not seek to enter a newly created division in the Gippsland League.
“This meeting was called and held to discuss the proposals by Newborough, Yinnar and Morwell East’s (current Mid Gippsland FNL clubs) intent to apply to enter the NGFNL in 2025, but with the news released by GLFNL (Gippsland League) to the NGFNL on Tuesday (July 16) afternoon, it also became a topic for discussion,” the NGFNL said in a press release.
“The NGFNL Board of Directors are united in continuing to deliver a competition to its member clubs of an extremely high standard for the remainder of the year and into the future.
“The NGFNL are also committed to pursuing and strengthening relationships with junior football leagues in Gippsland and creating pathways to senior football competition in the future.”
In the statement, the NGFNL also pointed to the league’s partnership with the Sale Umpires Association, which sees all grades of North Gippsland football supplied with official umpires every week.
Morwell East has made clear its intentions of wanting to get out of Mid Gippsland, making applications in the last two seasons.
Newborough had looked at joining Ellinbank & District a few months ago, before being told they weren’t wanted.
With Yinnar now in the mix, the MGFNL could be left with 10 clubs.
Making matters slightly more complex is the fact the Hawks, Bulldogs and Magpies are not exactly struggling in Mid Gippsland.
Morwell East is on top of the senior football ladder, followed by Yinnar in third and Newborough fifth.
However, there is a feeling the MGFNL has become very much a ‘money league’.
Should Yinnar and Newborough go, it will leave the competition with just three under 18 teams. With virtually no juniors coming through, most Mid Gippsland clubs look set to rely on paying players to field teams.
Conversely, the NGFNL mandates that all member clubs must field under 18s.
This was pointed out in the league’s statement, although claims from said statement the NGFNL “remains one of the strongest leagues in Gippsland, with full compliments of all teams”, has been a bone of contention.
One look at the senior NGFNL ladder will show just how lopsided the competition is, and how little has changed in the last couple of years.
Traralgon Tyers United and Woodside are on top by three games, while at the other end, Gormandale, Glengarry and Cowwarr continue to struggle, as they have since sport resumed after the pandemic.
In netball stakes, there has been largely no change either as to who the most dominate A Grade sides have been in the last decade.
Rosedale made the Grand Final in eight of 10 years in the 2010s, while Woodside has hardly lost a game since 2022.
With the NGFNL working on a club delegate’s structure, the league’s board is largely governed by what member clubs decide.
However, to have all 11 of them shoot down the idea of speaking to the Gippsland League less than a week after discussions started appears to imply North Gippsland clubs are happy with the status quo – regardless of the obvious non-competitiveness of some teams.
That the NGFNL also referred to the Gippsland League as ‘GLFNL’ (Gippsland Latrobe Football-Netball League) in its press release perhaps shows a degree of apathy on their part as well.
Compounding this somewhat, the NGFNL and MGFNL met recently to look at the future of both leagues.
The Gippsland League may have been hoping North Gippsland clubs were practical rather than parochial about the prospect of coming into a league offering fully paid general and operational managers, and the chance to maybe compete against like-minded opponents from the MGFNL.
Granted they are totally different sports, but the parallels between last year’s merger and subsequent success of the Traralgon District Cricket Association and Latrobe Valley District Cricket League could act as an example of what is possible when forces combine.
In the meantime, the situation facing some North Gippsland club is looming as another unfortunate case of ‘you can’t help those who can’t help themselves’.
