Riddell District Football Netball League set to welcome 10th senior club

The Riddell District Football Netball League hopes to return to a 10-team competition in 2024 with the senior debut of a new club.

Gisborne Giants in action last season. Picture: Gisborne Giants

The Riddell District Football Netball League hopes to welcome an expansion club in 2024.

Gisborne Giants are expected to become the competition’s 10th senior team next season, stepping up from under-19s to senior football.

Formed in 2016, the Giants have progressed from a junior club to playing under-19s for the first time last season and now expect to field teams in all three senior grades from 2024.

The club also hopes to have senior netball teams in 2024 and in the long run, provide junior and senior women’s football.

Gisborne president Brad Gauci said the club was working tirelessly to ensure its goal became reality.

Gisborne Giants in action last season. Picture: Gisborne Giants

“It was always the intention when the club came in in 2016, it’s just been a slow build that probably got held back by the COVID years,” he said.

“It’s definitely something we’re pushing toward in 2024, we had under-19s in 2022 and will again in 23 so the natural progression will be to move into seniors in 24.

“We’re also pushing for under-19s netball this year as well with the intention of going into senior netball in 2024.

“We’ll be putting out an EOI for senior coaches shortly, so we can appoint a coach as early as possible and get the ball rolling for recruiting and stuff like that.”

While a relatively new club, the Giants have had success at junior level, winning football premierships at under-11 (2018, 2019, 2021) and under-13 (2018) level and netball premierships in under-15s (2017) and under-17s (2019).

The club has also had seven players win league best-and-fairest awards at various age levels.

In its debut season, the Giants’ under-19s won two games but are expected to be more competitive this season with another pre-season under their belt.

Gauci said, with some strategic recruiting, the club was hopeful of being competitive in its senior debut.

“The juniors have been pretty good over the years and the 19s won two games in their first season,” he said.

“We’ll be looking for them to be more competitive in 2023 and then as those guys get bigger bodies and hopefully recruit some bigger bodies as well, our seniors will be reasonable competitive.”

The Giants currently train on Sankey Reserve and the under-19s play at Gardiner Reserve.

It is hoped the club will call the new Macedon Ranges Regional Sports Precinct home in 2024.

After losing several clubs in recent years, it’s a major boost to the Riddell District.

The Giants inclusion would eliminate the current bye and give the league a presence in the regional centre of Gisborne.

RDFNL CEO Jordan Doyle said it was pleasing to see a club grow from the ground up.

“They’ve been a junior club in our league for a number of years now and been growing organically from the bottom,” he said.

“That will be our 10th club, which we’re pretty excited about.

“We’re still in discussions with our clubs, so there’s still some water to go under the bridge but that’s where it’s heading at the moment.”

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Doyle didn’t rule out further expansion in the coming years.

“The idea, we’ve been talking to our clubs as a whole – both senior and junior, we want to grow internally as well as externally,” he said.

“Eynesbury has been a junior club for quite some time – they’ve got Club 18 as well – and they are up to under-17s, so we hope their not too far away as well, which would be good for the league.”

The Riddell District Football Netball League season will kick off on April 1 with a stand-alone clash between Western Rams and Melton Centrals at Ian Cowie Reserve.