Donald vows to bounce back after 280-point loss to Sea Lake Nandaly

In the wake of a difficult 280-point defeat, a North Central league club has opened up on its future and how it plans to keep fighting on despite talk of mergers.

Donald Football Netball Club suffered the biggest loss in country footy this year. Picture: Donald Football Netball Club.

Nothing is off the table about the future of Donald but president Danny Forrest says the main focus right now is fighting on and rebuilding the club.

The Royal Blues last Saturday suffered the biggest loss in country footy this season, losing by 280 points to Sea Lake Nandaly in the North Central league.

It was a tough day for the club who conceded 44 goals, including 15 in the final term, as the defending back-to-back premiers ran riot.

Donald has now lost its past 10 matches, seven this year and the last three in 2024.

It’s a stark contrast to just three years ago when the team made the grand final.

Forrest said the struggle came from an off-season of change, which saw 20 players leave and coach Josh Potter move on.

Daniel Pearce took over in late November and was left with little time to turn it around before the season started.

“The situation is we went through a bit of a list change over in the off-season,” Forrest said.

“We had to appoint a new coach late and we’ve got a bunch of young local lads who are getting exposed to senior footy. We’re doing a great job fielding seniors every weekend.

“We’ve gone from an average list age of 30 to 19 in a blink of an eye.”

Donald Football Netball Club logo. Picture: Donald Football Netball Club.

Last Saturday’s loss was compounded by injury with the coaching staff needing to find 11 replacements.

“We’ve used close to 60 different players,” the president said.

“We’ve done an outstanding job of fielding sides without forfeiting games.”

The struggle has the club thinking about its future, especially with other teams in the league merging in recent years.

Calder United, a merger between Nullawil and Wycheproof Narraport, made its debut in the competition in 2025.

“There’s ongoing discussions and has been for multiple years about mergers,” Forrest said.

“Multiple clubs have had multiple discussion with each other. Schools are dropping numbers so the junior situation is one thing we might all have to address moving forward.

“You’ve got rocks in your head if you are not having an open discussion. We’re not saying we won’t merge, we’d like to stand-alone for as long as we can.

“But you can never say never.”

Forrest said with the AFL Victoria timeframe on sides merging or moving leagues, it’s unlikely anything will happen this year.

The focus now is on building towards bouncing back in 2026.

“We’re filling in all the volunteer roles, we’re filling in the four teams every week,” he said.

“It just hasn’t correlated to results in the league. We’ve had our decade in the finals.

“We’ll rebuild, we’ll reload and hopefully bounce back quick next year.”

And under his watch the team won’t forfeit in any grade this year even if worse times come.

“We’re too proud to do that (forfeit) but it’s a character building year,” he said.

“You can’t question everyone’s endeavour. As tough as it is we’re learning a bit about ourselves.

“Thankfully, the committee doesn’t have to pull on the jumper so we’re all right.”

Donald has the bye this week.