FOOTBALL
MID GIPPSLAND/NORTH GIPPSLAND
By TOM HAYES
A VOTE on Wednesday, August 7 will determine whether the North Gippsland Football-Netball League will accept the transfers of clubs into the league for the 2025 season.
Motions on the table include votes for three, two, or one club to join the NGFNL in 2025, or none at all.
As per the NGFNL constitution, a 75 per cent majority is needed between the 11 member clubs, plus one NGFNL board vote, meaning nine or more votes for any item will be found successful.
This vote comes after Mid Gippsland FNL club, Newborough Football-Netball Club internally voted for a move out of the Mid Gippsland competition.
Newborough FNC President, Natalie Sellings explained the processes that the club took last Sunday (August 4) for the vote.
“Our constitution needs a general meeting or an AGM when we obviously make these sorts of decisions to make shifts, so this was put to our clients in relations to moving to North Gippsland for the 2025 season,” she said.
She added that the club held two information sessions to all members, to get as much information across as people.
“We had just over 90 people there, either putting through a proxy vote… and there was actually 50 there present for the vote,” Sellings said.
The vote found 97 per cent of members were in favour of leaving the MGFNL.
“That’s a massive amount for the move, they see the benefits, and risks of the status quo if we did stay in relation to those junior pathways,” Sellings added.
Since the vote in favour to leave MGFNL, Newborough has formerly filed an application to join the NGFNL.
In doing so, Sellings told the Express the club has also sent an official letter to the MGFNL to show their intentions to transfer out of the league.
Sellings said she was pleased with the outcome of Sunday’s vote.
“We’re quite pleased because obviously as caretakers of the club, we want to make certain that we’re doing right by our members, and this all came out of our last two AGMs that our members… wanted us to start researching our alternatives and risks of the status quo in staying with Mid Gippy,” she said.
“It’s been a two-years in the making review of exactly that – moving to another league, which came down to Ellinbank (& District Football-Netball League) and North Gippy, and the status quo of staying with Mid Gippy.”
In the Mid Gippsland FNL currently, only five clubs have an under 18s football competition – Newborough being one of those clubs. In the netball, a number of clubs don’t have teams in certain grades which poses as a negative in comparison to the North Gippsland FNL.
“The full complement (of teams) and the sound position of their juniors, football and netball,” Sellings said on why the North Gippsland FNL would be a good fit for Newborough.
Sellings said that Newborough FNC has teams in every grade and found it important for the league they play in to do the same.
“We’ve got a nice, strong full complement of teams, so it is vital that we align to a league that has the same,” she said.
“Probably one of our biggest concerns is the drop-off of families and players if our under 18s (football), and our under 17s, 15s, and 13s netball continues to deteriorate with more clubs leaving… playing the same club quite a bit.”
Newborough FNC do field an under 13s netball side in the Mid Gippsland FNL, however in the North Gippsland FNL, netball grades only go as low as under 15s.
Despite this, Newborough FNC wish to remain affiliated with their under 13s side, no matter what competition they play in.
“We’re going to be working very, very hard to keep the under 13s group attached to us, and they would be realigned to another competition,” Sellings said if Newborough was to join the NGFNL.
“But again, we’re putting in a number of initiatives to make sure those girls continue to train with our girls, our girls go and watch them – it’s very, very important to us that the under 13s remain connected to the senior club.”
At this current stage, it’s all a waiting game – and a nervous one at that.
Not just for Newborough, but also for Morwell East and Yinnar who have also shown interest to join the NGFNL.
