Torquay and Geelong Amateur to consider prospect of promotion as GFNL, BFNL club championship standings revealed

Bellarine clubs will have the chance to be promoted to the Geelong league at the end of 2025. And the top two have reflected on whether it is a serious possibility. See the full standings ahead of round one.

Torquay won last year’s senior Bellarine premiership. Picture: Mark Wilson

Reigning Bellarine premiers Torquay and Geelong Amateur will consider the prospect of promotion to the Geelong league throughout the season as the two clubs prepare for a round one blockbuster on Saturday.

The Ammos (36 points) and Tigers (35) currently sit in the top two on the club championship table entering the final season of the two-year cycle – clearly ahead of equal-third placed Anglesea and Ocean Grove (25 points) – with non-mandatory promotion on offer for the top-two in the Bellarine competition at the end of 2025.

The club championships standings will be determined by each club’s home-and-away ladder positions in senior and reserves football, and A and B grade netball across season’s 2024-2025, with a new two-year cycle beginning in 2026.

North Shore worked hard to field senior and reserves sides for the 2025 season but it has another fight on their hands on-field this season to avoid potential relegation, with the Seagulls starting the year six points behind St Albans (9).

The Seagulls did not field A and B grade netball teams last season – giving them a points tally of zero for each – and the current fixture says it will be the same again in 2025 despite some hope internally they have a B-grade netball team.

The last ranked club in the Geelong league club championships will remain in the competition if both Bellarine clubs turn down the opportunity, but both clubs will seriously consider the possibility.

Torquay has set up a subcommittee of life members and independent figures that will evaluate the pros and cons of promotion for the club if it does remain in the top-two.

However, president Cam Healey insisted that a top-two finish was far from a guarantee, with their netball arm of the club in a transition phase.

Torquay winners Picture: Mark Wilson

“Our junior football is in a healthy state and our football at the moment is in a healthy state, but that can turn really quickly,” Healy said.

“So we have got a subcommittee in place to actually be as informed and try take into account all factors so that if we were to have a good enough season both in the football and netball, and if we were in that top two, at least there would be a steering committee that would make a recommendation back to an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), and it would be voted upon by the members.

“So we are not sitting back just going, ‘Oh s--- it’s going to happen’, we are talking about it and preparing for it.

“The whole BFNL program is going from strength to strength with the growth of these community towns, from how strong Barwon Heads are, Anglesea, every single one of them is growing. Because they are so well coached, they are so well led by their presidents that we don’t take anything for granted.”

“There is no delusions that the GFNL, from a football and netball perspective, is a significant step up from what we’ve been used to. And every change has massive consequences – financially, football talent.

“There is a real love within the community to maintain that community environment of playing Barwon Heads twice, playing Anglesea twice, playing Modewarre twice.”

Geelong Amateur and Torquay played off in last year’s reserves grand final. Picture: Mark Wilson

Geelong Amateur president Simon Farrell said in June last year that their position of staying in the Bellarine was “pretty set in stone”, but almost a year on the club is more open to the idea.

He says the loss of junior players to GFNL clubs has made the club put more thought into promotion, with Farrell estimating the Ammos lose around 10 players each year after they finish under-16s.

Geelong rookie draftee Xavier Ivisic a high-profile example, crossing Geelong Amateur to Bell Park for under-18s football.

Farrell framed it as a 75 per cent chance they would stay in the Bellarine.

“We sort of just want to see how the season unfolds a bit. We wouldn’t rule it out, but we are probably more on the side of staying where we are,” Farrell said.

“But we wouldn’t rule it out without consideration.

“We seem to get all our junior stolen from GFNL clubs That’s the main reason, (we are more open to promotion), to build our junior section back up again, but we would still be 75 per cent staying in the Bellarine.

“If the option is there, you’ve got to have a look at it, doesn’t mean you have to do it.

“To tell you the truth, we don’t really look at it at all, it is just something that is there. It is awesome to win, but we prefer to win a senior premiership and an A grade netball premiership and come last in the club championship.”

Torquay will have competition in 2026 with neighbouring club Surf Coast Suns joining the Bellarine senior ranks for the first time, but losing players to the Suns or GFNL sides is unlikely to be a factor in their decision.

“We’ve never really worried about losing players,” Healey said.

“We are losing kids all the time to GFNL clubs, and that’s completely fine because we try to let them all go on good relationships because they always at some point in time come back. That’s a classic example of a Matty Boag.

“If we create the right environment, eventually when they don’t want to play that standing anymore, they come back.”

Originally published as Torquay and Geelong Amateur to consider prospect of promotion as GFNL, BFNL club championship standings revealed