Cranbourne Football Netball Club’s future uncertain after it is rejected by MPNFL clubs

CRANBOURNE president Gerry Kelly says his club’s future is uncertain after MPNFL clubs rejected its application to become a member club of the MPNFL at a special general meeting at Frankston Park last night.

Cranbourne’s Tom Marks takes a kick against Tooradin-Dalmore in the SEFNL this season. Picture: Valeriu Campan

CRANBOURNE president Gerry Kelly says his club’s future is uncertain after MPNFL clubs rejected its application to become a member club of the MPNFL at a special general meeting at Frankston Park last night.

The 22 MPNFL clubs voted on a motion to accept Cranbourne but the required 75 percent was not achieved.

Under AFL Victoria rules, Cranbourne has seven days to lodge an appeal with the AFL South East region commission, with any appeal to be heard by an independent appeals panel.

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Kelly said joining the Mornington Peninsula league was Cranbourne’s “only option’’.

“I’ll talk to my board tonight and see where we go from here, whether we appeal or not, because it’s the only option that we’ve got, that’s the thing, if we don’t get to the Mornington Peninsula (league) I’m not sure that we’re going to be playing football next year, it’s that serious,’’ he said.

“That’s the only option we’ve got. The Yarra Ranges, or Outer East as they’re called now, they’ve gone ahead with all their plans, they’ve got it all in place, so we’ve missed the boat over there so as I see it the Mornington Peninsula is our only option.’’

Cranbourne won the 2016 SEFNL flag.

Kelly said Cranbourne already had a strong history in the MPNFL and deserved to rejoin it.

“We’ve got four representatives in the Mornington Peninsula team of the century – Josh Kendall, Darryl Nisbet, Brutus Dalgleish and Patty Garrett,’’ he said.

“And we played Mornington back in 1890-something. I mean, we have got a long history of being part of Mornington Peninsula football.

“And we need a home, we are really asking clubs to take us in.’’

The vote last night was a secret ballot but Kelly felt Cranbourne had “a lot of support in the room’’.

AFL South East region manager John Anderson said his commission didn’t have the power to intervene and put Cranbourne into the MPNFL.

“The commission per se doesn’t,’’ he said.

“Cranbourne has basically got seven days to lodge an appeal. We just comply with AFL Victoria’s rules basically.’’

Frankston Bombers president Chris Sharman said MPNFL clubs wanted to allow the current competition to consolidate before bringing in new clubs.

“Cranbourne’s timing is probably unlucky,’’ he said.

“This year we said we got it right and it’s really good, division one and division two are working well, let’s leave it for a couple of years.

“I said to Gerry, it’s nothing against you or the club, it’s just bad timing. We need it to settle down for a couple of years before we have any more changes.’’