FOOTBALL

ODFNL

By LIAM DURKIN

 

YOU do wonder how much longer some of these clubs can hang on.

Swan Reach Football-Netball Club has gone into recess.

The Omeo District Football-Netball League club made the decision not to field any football or netball teams last week.

The club was considering just fielding netball and junior football in season 2026, before deciding on a whole-club reset.

As they say, winning wallpapers over a lot of cracks. Incredibly, the Swans have gone from playing in a senior football grand final to just about folding in the space of one offseason.

Swan Reach only lost the premiership by less than a goal, however some controversial off field issues have brought the crisis to a head.

Reports of frequent brawls and unruly behaviour at Swan Reach games over the last few years means the club now has virtually no senior footballers.

A match between Swan Reach and Bruthen was called off last season due to fears Bruthen Recreation Reserve would become the host of violent retribution between two families connected to the clubs.

Things tipped over even further after the grand final, when videos circulated online depicting mock smoking ceremonies and war dances.

Notwithstanding the ODFNL’s strong Indigenous population, the videos were deemed highly offensive and inappropriate. It is understood AFL Gippsland will host a number of cultural awareness sessions with all Omeo clubs this season.

The ODFNL season will be reduced to five teams and a somewhat farcical 12 rounds.

It is also understood no umpire associations want a bar of Omeo, meaning clubs will have to supply their own – hardly the ideal way to address a competition already grappling with an image where man on man football means going toe-to-toe

For Swan Reach, there is now fears for the immediate future of the small town riverside club.

Omeo games only require 16-a-side, and given it is not uncommon for 60-year-olds to play senior football in that part of the world, for Swan Reach to not even be able to cobble together a dad’s army just to get a team on the park, could spell the beginning of the end.

History is unfortunately littered with clubs going into recess and never coming back.

Devon-Welshpool-Won Wron-Woodside was the last Gippsland club to do so, and hasn’t played since 2017.

Sale City is one club that has risen from the ashes. The Bulldogs went into recess in 2003, recalibrated, and have been a powerhouse of North Gippsland ever since.

There is hope Swan Reach can do similar, and their plight is perhaps helped by having had the numbers for an under 16 team this season.

Arguably, clubs without juniors that have to pay the salary cap just to field a senior team are more of a concern than clubs like Swan Reach.

It is unclear what use, if any, the Swan Reach Recreation Reserve will have during winter, although it is hoped Swan Reach FNC maintains some sort of presence.

The club can still host weekly meals and fundraisers, critical to ensuring total club identity is not lost.

Swan Reach spent the 1996 season in recess between time in the now-defunct Riviera league and the ODFNL.

The last time the ODFNL had only five clubs was in 1995 when Ensay folded early in the season. The league had four clubs until the late 1970’s when Bruthen and Buchan joined.

Teams scheduled to play the Swans this year will have a bye.

The situation has renewed discussion about merging the ODNFL with East Gippsland FNL.

Given the current climate, it appears inevitable this will eventually happen.

It also again speaks to the ever-changing demographics of country footy.

How staggering it is to think Omeo and Benambra were separate clubs only 20 years ago.