Footy league asks Andrews to intervene
The Yarra Junior Football League, home to 11,000 young players, fears for its future as it prepares to lose its home ground to make way for the North East Link. It has made a special plea to Premier Daniel Andrews to intervene and help it find a new long-term home.
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A junior footy league whose 11,000 grassroots players will lose their home ground to make way for the North East Link is urging Premier Daniel Andrews to intervene.
The Yarra Junior Football League — the largest in Australia with 33 clubs and 508 teams — will be kicked out of its Bulleen headquarters which will be consumed by the 26km Melbourne motorway.
The Herald Sun can reveal the league will on Thursday reluctantly accept an offer to move to a single new ground 12km away subject to conditions but reject it as a long-term option.
Instead it wants Dan Andrews to find it “a proper home”.
League chiefs fear the move long-term would risk tearing their association apart and pose safety risks to junior players including more than 3000 females.
The league which has produced AFL players such as Jack Macrae, Toby Greene, Jack Viney, and Dan Hannebery, wants to move to Parks Victoria-owned land in Bulleen.
YJFL President Jeff Hooper called on Mr Andrews to cut red tape and help relocate it to nearby “Seed Park” in Templestowe Rd instead of Ford Park in Ivanhoe.
“What we want is for Dan the man to come over the top and make a political decision that is good for his constituents and not just the let the bureaucrats have their way,’’ he said.
The North East Link Authority has offered the league use of an oval at Ford Park and facility upgrades of between $8-10 million at the venue.
But Mr Hooper said the league, which has launched the careers of five per cent of all AFLW players, needed two ovals to meet the growing demand of its fast expanding girl’s competition.
With the geographical centre of its clubs at the intersection of the Eastern Freeway and Doncaster Road in Doncaster, he said moving its home base too far away threatened its existence.
“If they take us away from the Bulleen area we’re going to be all over the place trying to organise games for 11,000 kids,’’ he said.
“It’s going to put us in significant jeopardy of the league and many clubs not being able to operate.’’
Government spokeswoman Hayley Bester said it would work with the league “to ensure it can continue to thrive during construction and operation of the North East Link”.
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“We are planning to deliver massive upgrades to Ford Park delivering brand new headquarters for the league and providing players and their families with new playing fields, better lighting and female-friendly change rooms,’’ she said.
Mr Hooper said the league had “a shot gun at our heads’’ to move to a “totally inadequate facility” despite an Independent Advisory Committee not yet reporting to Government.
YJFL chief executive Tim Murray said: “We reject Ford Park as a long-term home for the YJFL and we ask Daniel Andrews to find us a home.
“In the meantime we’ve been forced by the government body, the North East Link Authority, to make a decision before their own independent panel has even reported.’’
The panel is expected to report to government by the end of November.