FOOTBALL

MID GIPPSLAND

BY BLAKE METCALF-HOLT

 

A FULL Saturday showcase will return for Mid Gippsland football, with the announcement of an under 16s competition this season.

The Mid Gippsland Football-Netball League has been vacant of Fourths (U16s) for the past six years, but is currently eyeing upwards of nine clubs interested in getting a junior team off the ground.

This follows on from Mid Gippsland’s success in revitalising its Thirds (U18s) competition last season, where it grew to the largest number of teams since 2017, discounting the incomplete 2021 season.

What could be seen is the return to ‘the good old days’ with a full slate of football, featuring four games across a Saturday, from morning to afternoon.

Ultimately, it will keep senior and junior teams aligned into the future.

Central Gippsland Junior Football League added an U15s competition for the 2021 season (moving to U16s in 2024), in the aftermath of the pandemic and the most closely affiliate senior league (Mid Gippsland) acquiring six former Alberton FNL clubs from South Gippsland.

Stringing a few years together with four age groups, the Central Gippsland JFL U16s dropped to just four teams in 2025, making its viability difficult going forward.

Mid Gippsland, who had been seeking to re-acquire the U16s for some time, held discussions with Central Gippsland midway through last football season, and eventually confirmed the transfer by the end of 2025.

Mid Gippsland Junior Development Officer Ken Hutchinson said that the push for Fourths is off the back of the clubs themselves.

“Our clubs are doing all of the hard work (and they) are rapt to have full Saturday football back,” he told the Express.

To go along with the consistent Mid Gippsland junior teams of Yinnar, Newborough and Mirboo North, the likes of smaller clubs such as Boolarra, Tarwin and Hill End are hopeful of an U16s side.

Other South Gippsland clubs in Fish Creek, Meeniyan Dumbalk United (MDU) and a combined Toora and Foster team (coming from the Corner Inlet Junior Football Club) are also throwing their hat in the ring.

Hutchinson added that clubs are beginning to recognise the importance of home grown talent as a means to eventually lead into their senior sides.

“We’re on the slow build … clubs are starting to recognise that’s the future,” he said.

“Player points is driving all that (mind set), when they have to recruit in a player from a neighbouring club, the player points are coming with it, and it’s starting to have an effect.

“So, they are really recognising that one-point home grown players are the way to go.”

In 2025, Mid Gippsland surged to its largest U18s competition in years, after many seasons with only four or five teams competing, climbed back up to seven.

Similar numbers are expected this year, with Morwell East potentially having a Thirds side for just the second time since 2017, however, Yinnar are unlikely to get an U18s on the park.

The Magpies didn’t get a Thirds team up in 2019, a year where Mid Gippsland had just a four-team U18s competition, but are typically strong in junior grades and will eventually rebound through its U16s.