New Mallee football, netball clubs set to join River Murray league reveal names as excitement builds ahead of 2023 season

The Mallee may have lost its local footy and netball leagues, but the excitement of newly-formed club identities could renew enthusiasm for sport in the region, officials believe.

Mark Steinert, of the River Murray Football League, said the competition was excited to be working with the new Mallee teams set to join the league in 2023.

There’s a great big sound from the west of the border, and it’s the sound of the … Mallee Giants?

Well, at least there could be soon, with the Giants moniker selected in a shortlist of potential names for one of the two new sports clubs set to join the River Murray football and netball competitions for the 2023 season.

In September, the Mallee competition was forced to dissolve as clubs left the league as part of mergers due to declining volunteer and junior numbers.

The neighbouring Karoonda Magpies and the Peake Lions clubs are joining forces and look likely to be known as ‘Mallee’ and facilitators of the merger have finished community consultation as they work to lock in the rest of their new identity.

The options on the table? The Mallee Giants, the Mallee Storm, the Mallee Jets and the Mallee Heat.

The colour schemes members were asked to vote between were teal, black white and pink, purrple, grey and silver, orange, grey and white or purple, yellow and white.

Karoonda-Peake branding committee member Max Sparks said the new club was in the process of finalising its submission to the River Murray Football League and it was hoped the new identity could be revealed soon.

“The four names were the most popular from the first round of community consultation where everything was on the table,” he said.

Peake and Karoonda members were asked to vote on four names and four colour schemes as the clubs worked towards a final submission to the River Murray football and netball leagues.

The other team born out of the ashes of the Mallee league will be known as the Southern Mallee Football Netball Club, with Lameroo and Pinnaroo combining to form the new club, also with a view to join the River Murray competition.

Is a new storm brewing?: The Storm name proposal might be fitting for the Karoonda-Peake merger. Pictured is the damaged Karoonda Football Club following the mini-tornado storm which in the Murray Mallee which made headlines in June, 2005.

Southern Mallee Futures Committee facilitator Kim Thorpe said the planning group had completed two branding and identity surveys and the response had been “overwhelming”.

“Our new colour and name is so important to our community as it forms a big part of our new identity, it’s how we will represent ourselves in a new league, it’s what we will wear week in week out, it will guide the club song that will be sung, and it’s the colours that will fly high and proud in the Southern Mallee for years to come,” she said.

Thorpe said an announcement of the new identity was expected within the next two weeks.

The two new clubs will join the Coorong Cats as fresh faces to the River Murray league, with Mallee powerhouse Border Downs-Tintinara combining with River Murray club Meningie to become the Cats and don blue and white.

River Murray Football League acting president Mark Steinert said he expected final submissions from both the Karoonda-Peake union and the Lameroo-Pinnaroo teams would be in soon and he was excited about the expansion of what has been a seven-team league.

“I’m thinking within the next week we will have both submissions in by both parties and it will be put to our (existing) clubs and by the end of the month, early November at the latest and we will have full decisions on what is happening with the whole thing,” he said.

Steinert said a delegation of River Murray football and netball executives visited Lameroo on Monday, October 24, and the group was impressed with what they heard and saw.

“Southern Mallee (Lameroo and Pinnaroo) have put forward a great proposal, they have great facilities,” he said.

“The Lameroo-Pinnaroo proposal was a 26-page proposal from governance through to facilities, everything … we came back last night really impressed; off the field they are going to be terrific, very well run, very community oriented.”

Steinert said the league’s executive committee was equally impressed by the Karoonda-Peake team looking to join the competition.

“Both have strong steering committees … both consortiums are really positive about it and there is lots of upside to it all,” he said.

“Whatever colours, names, that has to come to the executive to ok… from our league’s point of view we wanted to make sure we didn't have any clashes with existing clubs.

“I think they are going to something non-traditional as far as colours and styles go.”

Steinert said it was hoped the mergers would bring communities together and while the Mallee may have lost its local league, the renewed enthusiasm for something new in the region could spark higher participation levels.

“With an influx of enthusiasm in the community some of the kids who might not have been playing footy or netball because it was too hard or couldn’t play in their own age group … they might be keen to play again,” he said.