Southern league: Oakleigh District signs Port Melbourne’s Izzy Conway
Oakleigh District has strengthened its list considerably as it attempts to move to the Eastern league.
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Oakleigh District has unveiled a crack VFL signing as it attempts to make the move from the Southern league to Eastern.
The Oaks have locked in powerhouse Port Melbourne midfielder Izzy Conway, whose best football put him in the top bracket of state league players.
Conway, 26, captained the Queensland Under 18 team in 2013 and was a rookie with the Brisbane Lions in 2014.
The following year he made the move to Werribee, coming third in the best and fairest and gaining a VFL team-of-the-year jumper.
He crossed to Port in 2017 and, as hard as a brick, was outstanding in 2018 before suffering an ACL injury.
In seven matches this year he averaged 17.1 possessions, with his best performance coming in Round 2 against Sandringham when he had 24 disposals and kicked two goals.
The Oaks called Conway a “hard inside midfielder with the capacity to go forward, he’s clean below his knees and has good hands in traffic’’.
“We’re excited about the leadership qualities he brings to the club and he’s a genuine good bloke. H’s excited about where the club is headed and can’t wait to get on the track next month.’’
The Oaks have also signed key defender Ross McColl from the West Gippsland league and Ben Dicoccio from Glen Waverly Hawks.
The Southern league wants it to stay, but Oakleigh District remains determined to go to Eastern next year.
The Oaks this week released a statement saying they would contest attempts to keep them in the SFNL.
Southern has told its clubs it will to appeal the Oaks’ move to Division 2 of the Eastern league.
AFL Victoria will decide the Division 1 club’s fate in the next two weeks.
Oakleigh District held an information session last week to discuss the move.
President Miles Jones said the turnout was “very encouraging’’ and “the vote taken resulted in 98 per cent of members in favour of the transfer to the EFNL from season 2022 onwards, an overwhelming result’’.
“The next stage of the process has now seen the SFNL appeal the application. AFL Victoria will now handle the process in the form of a hearing that will be held within the next two weeks.
“Rest assured, we don’t accept this outcome and we’ll strongly contend the appeal as we continue to drive towards the move to the EFNL as strongly desired by our life members, members, players and officials.’’
SFNL CEO Lee Hartman had told Leader: “We’ve got to work through our appeal now. But a club that has been with us for 71 years, our league and its predecessors, we feel we need to go through that with them and we’ve advised the AFL, the Eastern league and Oakleigh District this morning that we’ve decided to appeal.’’
Meanwhile top AFL Outer East club Cranbourne has officially applied to join Southern and the board has accepted it.
AFL Victoria will notify AFL Outer East, which has 10 days to respond.
Cranny are one of the strongest and most successful clubs in the south-east region, and they have made several attempts to join the Mornington Peninsula Nepean competition.
They believe a move to Southern will allow them to settle in a league after quite a few of years of uncertainty.
Doveton expressed the same sentiment when it transferred to the SFNL recently.
Cranbourne is likely to go straight into Division 1 of the SFNL.
“It’s great for the league. It will lift the standard even further,’’ Hartman said.
“We’ve got a very strong competition across all four divisions and to have clubs like Cranbourne and Doveton come in will definitely lift the standard across the board.
“It also means the footprint of our league is quite large now. The City of Casey continues to grow and as new clubs pop up I’m sure they’ll be looking towards us as well.’’
Cranbourne is coached by the experienced Steve O’Brien, a former coach of Southern club St Kilda City, and legendary full forward Marc Holt is one of its leading players.
Hartman said the SFNL would not go beyond the City of Casey.
With the Oakleigh District move going to appeal and Cranbourne yet to be cleared, Southern cannot confirm the gradings for 2022.
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