EFNL 2025: Embattled Eastern club Doncaster weighing up future

The Eastern league could be forced into a last-minute division shuffle as a proud club fights for survival. Latest here.

EFNL 2025: Doncaster’s future remains up in the air. Picture: Davis Harrigan

The Eastern league could be forced into a last-minute division shuffle as proud club Doncaster fights for survival.

Speculation about the immediate future of the Division 1 Sharks has intensified this week following a player exodus in the off-season.

It’s understood the league is working with Doncaster on a resolution.

The Eastern league season begins on Saturday, with Division 3 pair Silvan and Coldstream opening the year in a standalone clash.

Despite Doncaster vehemently denying rumours of a player shortage a month ago after it advertised for personnel, talk persists that the club could go into recess or drop divisions in a bid to survive.

“We’ll be fine going forward. There’s always rumours … and the same ones the last few years, we’ll be fine, we’ll get a team up, there’s no dramas,” Doncaster president Sean O’Gorman told this masthead last month.

One scenario circulating in Eastern this week had the club headed for Division 4, while another had it moving down to Division 3.

The Division 3 move insisted Croydon, currently in Division 2 after a runner-up finish last year, would replace Doncaster in Division 1, while Donvale – which suffered a two-point grand final heartbreak in Division 3 – would be promoted to Division 2.

Croydon and Donvale have declined to comment.

The Sharks enjoyed a rapid rise through the divisions in the 2010s as a destination club flush with ex-AFL talent, winning premierships in 2011, ’13 and ’15 to jump into the league’s top-flight.

Its current senior coach, Chris Annakis, won back-to-back Chandler medals across 2017 and ‘18 as the top division’s best and fairest player with the club a regular feature in finals.

It suffered relegation from Premier Division at the end of 2023 before winning just three matches in Division 1 last season.

Doncaster’s predicament follows near-century-old club Nunawading’s withdrawal of its senior men’s and reserves teams last month – just two years shy of its centenary.

Doncaster Football Club and the Eastern league have been contacted for comment.