Local footy 2021: Ovens and Murray Football League bouncing back
The action fires up for the Ovens and Murray Football League on Saturday, with a swag of ex-AFL players adding to the thrill of footy’s return. Read Part 2 of the regional footy series on Monday.
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Far from forecasting a bleak future after the 2020 campaign was wiped amid the coronavirus crisis, the Ovens and Murray Football League is tipping the coming season to be its most competitive in more than a decade.
Emboldened by a quality list of former AFL players putting pen to paper with its clubs and thriving football and netball competitions, the league is eagerly awaiting the first bounce after successfully navigating an uncertain period.
“I think the interest levels are as high as they have been,” former league general manager Sean Barrett told Leader Local Footy before he departed the role.
“I’ve been here for five years now and I think this is the peak of what the community interest and anticipation for the season ahead has been.
“With that interest, we’ll see good numbers through the gate hopefully for our matches.
“I think the league’s in as good a position as it’s been in for 15 years in terms of its competitiveness, including the netball.”
The independently run Ovens and Murray league houses 10 senior clubs – six in Victoria and four in NSW – separated by the Murray River.
Albury, Corowa-Rutherglen, Lavington, Myrtleford, North Albury, Wangaratta, Wangaratta Rovers, Wodonga, Wodonga Raiders and Yarrawonga make up the competition.
A season of no football has delivered financial pain at league headquarters, but the blow has not been fatal, Barrett even suggesting it was a “palatable outcome”.
The country competition has taken the step of moving some bills for 2021 to 2020 to allow the recovery to start.
“We posted a loss last year, but it was certainly significantly less than what we had forecasted once COVID had hit,” Barrett said.
“We brought forward some expenses out of this year’s budget, which has given us some flexibility to move into the new year. That left us with a $40,000 loss, whereas our true loss was probably closer to $20,000.
“We’ve taken the approach to be fairly skinny with our spending.
“One of the true challenges of the nature of our business and what we do is we are heavily reliant on finals income at the end of our financial season.
“We’ve got to forecast as if that’s going to be significantly impacted (this season) and budget towards that.”
Barrett said the ability to stage a regular finals series in 2021 would leave the Ovens and Murray “in a really strong position”.
But with clubs in two states and several players who travel from Melbourne, the league is maintaining a cautious approach.
Barrett said he had “more confidence”, however, a season could proceed safely with contact tracing and health measures in place.
Clubs have also emerged in a healthy position, with none left fearing the prospect of folding.
The league held fortnightly zoom meetings with club presidents and delegates last year, encouraging them to reassess their budgets and look at fundraising initiatives.
It also engaged Terry Dillon Solutions to run a session last April to help clubs implement strategies to safeguard their futures.
Barrett said it was vital to remain in constant contact with clubs through a period where questions were abound.
“While we were getting questions from 10 clubs on what’s happening with this or that, they (club committee members) are getting the questions from seven coaches, 100-odd players and all the supporters and so forth who have such keen interest in what’s happening,” he said.
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Clubs have also been busy strengthening their lists for 2021.
In the biggest recruiting coup, 2019 runner-up Wangaratta has secured the services of Collingwood premiership player Ben Reid as it looks to atone for its grand final loss to Lavington.
Reid featured in the Magpies’ 2010 premiership triumph and was selected in the All-Australian team the following year.
Powerhouse Albury, which has claimed seven of the past 11 flags, has signed Anthony Miles who arrives with 88 games of experience over nine seasons with Greater Western Sydney, Richmond and Gold Coast.
The 34-year-old, who was born in the regional city, has been appointed co-coach of the club.
Former Melbourne and Carlton small forward Jeff Garlett also joined the Tigers before the 2020 season was canned. He booted 321 goals from 185 games in a fine AFL career.
Myrtleford shapes as a big improver as it prepares to roll out star 2020 recruit and co-coach Dawson Simpson (48 games for Geelong and GWS), along with Taylor Hunt (105 games for Geelong and Richmond).
Kurt Aylett (three games for GWS and Essendon) is another key acquisition, while ex-VFL small forward Matt Munro, who finished fourth in Werribee’s best-and-fairest in 2019, has linked up with the club full-time.
Wodonga has landed a batch of impressive signings, headlined by former Brisbane Lion Josh Clayton.
Willie Wheeler and Leigh Masters will take the field for Yarrawonga after calling time on their VFL careers, while Wangaratta Rovers have gained ex-Melbourne midfielder Matt Jones.
“Clubs have recruited quite well during this period and seemed to maintain their lists pretty well,” Barrett said.
“We had probably seven or eight clubs out of the 10 who were really in contention for the pointy end of the season (in 2020).
“As an administration, that’s what we want to see – players and supporters turning up on a Saturday and feeling if they play their best footy or netball, they can get the result they want.
“There’s certainly a lot of positivity and optimism around the competition going into the year and that’s enlightening to be coming into a season where clubs, players and supporters are really anticipating getting things underway and seeing some great contests.”
The Ovens and Murray league’s season will kick off with a blockbuster clash between Albury and Yarrawonga on Saturday before Lavington and Wangaratta Rovers do battle on Sunday.
A traditional full round of fixtures will then be held over the Easter weekend.
“Those first few weeks are so important for the clubs in terms of their membership and getting off to a good start to the year,” Barrett said.
“With the weather a bit better, we’ve got a lot more night games and twilight games fixtured.
“I think that’s as much a result of the investment from local councils and clubs in upgrading their lighting facilities and being able to provide different options for people to attend community sport, and the league’s been really keen to support that over the past few years.”
Barrett said the league would live stream two football matches and one netball fixture each week in 2021.
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