Eastern Football League club reveals plans for in-house competition
Suburban footy’s absence has players itching to take the field and one Eastern Football League club has revealed its plan to get its teams back on the park in 2020.
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Eastern Division 1 club Park Orchards has revealed its plan to combat suburban footy’s long lay-off, with an intra-club league set for action.
The Eastern Football Netball League became one of the first major suburban competitions to call off their season earlier this month, with clubs exploring ways to keep their players fit and engaged.
The Sharks’ internal competition, titled the ‘Hoskins League’, will be a Thursday night competition featuring four teams and four rounds in the senior men’s and a senior women’s division featuring two sides.
The internal league will begin with a three-week training lead-in ahead of matches kicking off, with the ‘pre-season’ training window running from June 22 to July 13, and the rounds slated for July 16, 23, 30 and August 6.
Looking forward, the club is hopeful it can host a series of ‘Super Saturdays’ from August 15 to September 19, involving other Eastern league clubs, if restrictions permit.
Park Orchards president Jeremy Thomas said the club had worked tirelessly to create “something compelling” to keep players engaged.
“We’ve put a bit of effort in and got creative, and we hope the guys will embrace it and get involved,” Thomas said.
“We’ve built a sub-committee that’s gone away and done this and we’ve built four franchises and we’ll have a Zoom draft.
“We’ve got franchise names, a president and a coach and captain and sponsor over each franchise. It gives us a chance to work together.”
The club had surveyed its players, coaches, volunteers and stakeholders to gauge interest in the concept.
“The feedback so far is this is the sort of thing they wanted but we think we’re going to be able to deliver a lot more than they anticipated, which will be great,” Thomas said.
“It was important you hear from the coaches and players, but just as important to us is our membership base and our committee who work very hard.
“It was important that we really checked in with the core areas of our club … especially our volunteers – they’ve lost their weekend, what brings them a lot of meaning – to make sure we hear their voice too.”
The club also said it was exploring options for its netball teams.
“We believe that things will open up for us to do a lot more as the season progresses,” Thomas said.
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