Melton South to look at future after big loss to Lake Wendouree

A Ballarat league battler has admitted tough conversations could be needed about its future after another thumping loss on the weekend. Here’s what could be on the cards.

Melton South’s Mitch Fino. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Melton South president Matthew Collins says “nothing is off the table” when it comes to where the club might play next year after a demoralising loss on Saturday.

The Panthers’ season went from bad to worse with a 174-point loss to Lake Wendouree.

In the battle between the Ballarat league’s bottom two, it was a one-sided contest with the Lakers kicking seven goals to one in the first term.

Lake Wendouree kicked away in the final three terms, adding another 24 goals, to win their first game in more than 400 days.

But while it was joy for one team, it was pain for the other.

The Panthers had former AFL players Jeff Garlett and Tom Phillips play but not even their inclusion was enough to close the gap or provide a contest.

Former AFL player Tom Phillips has moved to Melton South for the rest of the year. Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Collins said while both got injured during the contest, the performance of the team wasn’t even close to being good enough.

“It was not a good day, definitely not,” he said.

“Phillips played four minutes, he broke his finger or thumb. Garlett did his hamstring halfway through the second quarter.

“We were down to 17 in the last quarter and two of the 17 should not have been on the ground.

“They were injured enough to not be on the ground. Once the injuries started piling up there wasn’t much we could do.

“But the first quarter it was where we were really disappointing.

“So no excuses.”

When Phillips returns from injury he’ll play for Melton South for the rest of the season when he isn’t playing VFL for Carlton.

He’s signed on from the Wodonga Raiders before the June 30 deadline.

Collins admits right now the club is at a loss of where to go to turn it around and Saturday was as deflating as it comes for the club.

The team is now winless in their past 31 matches, stretching back to 2022.

Travis Hodgson has taken over as coach of Melton South this year. Picture: Hamish Blair

While the president said the recruitment of Travis Hodgson as coach has been a positive, with his connections bring players to the club, and the relationship between Melton South’s juniors and seniors getting better, as more players come to the club, it isn’t translating into results.

And that has led the club to start thinking about their future.

“Nothing is off the table,” he said.

“It was (a tough day) for everyone, the club was very flat. We’ll have to assess (our future), Saturday was not a great day.

“We’re talking now amongst ourselves. Where we go from here is still up in the air.

“Ballarat’s definitely our preference but we’ve got to make sure we can do it.”

The club said it would be asking the Ballarat league for more help with additional points and salary cap concessions but already the Panthers have the highest allowance in both areas in the league.

Collins said it was unlikely other clubs would allow it to happen.

“We’ll keep trying and keep fighting and try to turn it around,” he said.

“(But there is) definitely the option to go to back the RDFL.

“(If we did it) we’d have to have an EGM and go from there.”

Melton South played in the Riddell league from 1973 to 1996 before moving to Ballarat.