Hills Football League to open 2025 season during AFL Gather Round

One of local SA footy’s top competitions has explained its controversial decision to open the 2025 season during AFL Gather Round amid some backlash.

One of SA’s top local footy competitions has scheduled its opening round clashes for the 2025 season during the Saturday of AFL Gather Round in a decision which has left some community fans shocked.

The Hills Football League will open its 2025 season at 2.30pm on Saturday, April 12, a timeslot which would prevent the competition’s players, staff and fans from attending at least three Gather Round clashes at Adelaide Oval, Barossa Park and Norwood Oval on the same day.

Some local fans aired their shock and disappointment over the controversial decision after the league released its fixture on Tuesday.

Some Hills Football League players, staff and fans may miss AFL Gather Round games in 2025. Picture: Julian Smith

“Why would you schedule games on Gather Round? Mind blowing!”, one fan commented on social media.

“That’s Gather Round …”, another said.

League president Travis Lynn said the decision was made to avoid an early two-week break in the season, something the competition’s players disliked about the past two years.

“As a board, the decision was made to start that weekend (Gather Round) as the local cricket finishes on the 29th of March and that gives clubs the extra week to prepare ovals and get pitches ready for footy,” Lynn said.

“The safety of our players is paramount so we want or facilities to be at their best for the start of the season.

“If we were to start on April 5, the ovals might not be prepared properly and then the clubs would have two weeks off for Gather Round and Easter but the info we got back from the clubs last season was the two-week break early in the season was not well-received by the players.

A crowd shot at this year’s Sydney-West Coast game in Mount Barker. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“We sought advice from the SANFL before we decided on this matter and it is unfortunate that the timing doesn’t work but we need to fit in a 16-week season and finish mid-September with June long weekend and Country Champs weekend as compulsory byes.”

Hills city Mount Barker had hosted the only games outside of Adelaide for the first two Gather Round footy festivals and was in the mix to host another next year, but organisers opted for a fresh approach in Barossa town Lyndoch.

Mount Barker mayor David Leach previously told this masthead the Barossa would host well next year.

“We are good friends with the Barossa Council … and this council will do anything we can to assist them in hosting their matches,” Leach said.

“We always knew we weren’t the first choice for Gather Round but we were very grateful for the three matches we got.

“It really put us on the map and proved that we can handle really major projects.”