Berwick Springs set to field under-19s side in AFL Yarra Ranges competition in 2019

JUNIOR club Berwick Springs is set to enter the revamped AFL Yarra Ranges competition next year with the aim of establishing a senior side by 2021.

Trent Allison dishes off a handball for Berwick Springs. Picture: Cathy Allison

JUNIOR club Berwick Springs is set to enter the revamped AFL Yarra Ranges competition next year with the aim of establishing a senior side by 2021.

The Titans will field an under-19 team and possibly multiple netball teams in 2019 as part of a three-year plan to develop a senior club.

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Berwick Springs will join six South East Football Netball League clubs in applying to join the AFL Yarra Ranges when applications open on Wednesday.

President Ashley Allison said the Titans wanted to follow the lead of the SEFNL clubs in joining AFL Yarra Ranges.

“We were aware there were a number of clubs in our immediate vicinity that were going to go into that league, so it made sense from a geographical point of view,” Allison said.

“It will be a three-year rollout and if we get interest we might go earlier than that but that’s the plan at this stage.”

The Titans were established in 2007 and have swelled to 340 players from under-8s to under-17s.

Jarrod Hocking takes a mark for Berwick Springs. Picture: Cathy Allison

Allison said junior products who have left to play senior football could return to the club.

The club is aiming to have a reserves side by 2020.

“We have had for the last four or five years players leaving from a top-age point of view to clubs where they have seniors,” he said.

“We had kids that were playing together for eight years and then separating up so that was breaking our hearts that these kids were mates for that many years and then having to go somewhere to else to find a senior club.

“That was the main driving force so they could continue playing footy in the seniors together.”

AFL Yarra Ranges general manager Aaron Bailey said clubs’ applications to join the competition could be approved as soon as the commission meeting on August 2.

SEFNL clubs Narre Warren, Berwick, Pakenham, Doveton, Beaconsfield and Officer have all voted to join the league.

“The real work starts once the applications are in, then we start looking at the process of where people are playing division wise, what the structure looks like, points salary cap, all those key items for next year,” Bailey said.

“We’ll announce some new staff to help with the growth of the competition over the next three or four months so a lot of the work really begins once those applications are approved.”