Mornington Peninsula girls’ football and netball clash forces some players to choose between games
YOUNG female sports players in Mornington have been forced to choose between playing in their footy final or playing in their netball final after the leagues clashed over finals fixtures.
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JUNIOR football and netball leagues on the Mornington Peninsula are at loggerheads over finals fixtures, with a clash of schedules forcing some girls to choose between games.
Not only that, the Mornington Peninsula Netball Association is putting the blame on the Mornington Peninsula Junior Football League.
The football league plays its home-and-away games on Sundays but has set down its Under 11 and 13 girls finals matches for Saturdays.
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“It recently came to the attention of the MPNA committee that the MPJFL are playing their finals games on Saturdays — the day many of their players are already participating in other sports — one of which is netball,’’ the netball association’s Kaylee Hyland said in a statement to the Leader.
“Netball in Mornington has always been played on a Saturday, with games starting at 8.15am and going all day until 4pm, with the dates for our finals series being advertised at the start of the season, in March.
“These dates are on a Saturday as this is when the regular games are played.
“The MPJFL have decided to play their finals series on a Saturday as well, when their regular games are played on a Sunday.
“Ultimately this is forcing players to have to choose between playing their netball finals or their football finals.
“This is not fair to these players at all — why should they be forced to choose one or the other?’’
She said the netball association wanted children to play as many sports as they wished and to compete in the whole season for their sports, “finals and all’’.
The netball association has called on the football league to play its finals on Sundays.
Mt Martha Netball Club president Deanne Johnstone said all MPJFL finals games this Saturday would clash with MPNA matches on August 18.
And football finals on August 25 and September 1 and 8 would be played at the same time as MPNA finals for girls in the Under 12 and 13 divisions.
“Notification from MPJFL of their finals fixture at this late stage in the netball season does not enable netball teams to substitute players and cover for players in finals missing due to football final clashes,’’ Johnstone said.
“Encouraging girls and women to continue playing a team sport becomes more difficult as girls mature.
“It would be good to have some synergy between local sporting codes, to enable Under 11, Under 12 and Under 13 girls to play both netball and football finals if they wish.’’
In an email to netball officials, MPNJFL secretary Paul Bartolo said no change would be made to the finals fixtures.
He said all MPJFL clubs had been told during the year that finals this year could be staged on Friday nights, Saturdays or Saturday nights.
Bartolo said the MPJFL had previously rescheduled games to suit other sports, but this year it was impossible.
“Final series require the attendance of our full executive to oversee and administer. We are not able to run concurrent matches and different locations at the same time.’’
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