Hay, Murrayville, Bairnsdale: Clubs with longest road trips in country footy

Travel is part and parcel of country footy, but some clubs do much more than others. Find out who spends the most time on the road.

Country footballers are clocking thousands of kilometres each season in pursuit of premiership glory or ensuring teams remain in existence.

Early starts and late finishes to winter Saturdays are part and parcel of life for clubs in remote parts of Victoria and southern NSW.

But the tyranny of distance is not restricted to just smaller leagues.

Bairnsdale, located on the eastern edge of Gippsland’s major competition, has one of the biggest travel schedules of any team in the state and has still been able to win underage flags despite junior players being affected most by early morning starts.

Don’t expect to hear a complaint from those forced to spend close to three hours on the road for their weekly footy fix.

The Hay Lions compete in the Golden Rivers Football-Netball League. Picture: Hay Lions Facebook page

The travel burden for Hay, which plays in the Golden Rivers league, has actually eased with its two longest trips to Nullawil and Quambatook disappearing for contrasting reasons.

Nullawil is in its first season in the North Central league and Quambatook folded at the end of last year.

But Hay still has three trips of about 2.5 hours for matches with Macorna being the longest followed by Wandella and Ultima.

Mick Cattanach, a sheep farmer south of Carrathool, is in his first season as Hay senior coach.

He said travelling long distances was “how we roll” with match days starting even earlier for families with players in the under-17.5 and under-14.5 football teams.

“From Hay we travel distances for everything,” he said.

“With cricket in summer, kids will often travel two and a half, three hours on a Sunday to play in Wagga after playing around here on Saturday.

“If you want to play sport in Hay, two hours is not an extreme trip.

“It’s so ingrained in us to get up in the dark, and away you go.

“It is how we roll and the commitment people in this club have got to play their sport is truly amazing.”

Hay has previously had senior coaches who have lived in Bendigo with the support of locals to conduct training during the week.

After finishing second-bottom last year, the Lions are on track to play finals with a 50-point win at home on Saturday against Murrabit consolidating third spot.

Murrayville is the only Victorian club in the South Australian-based Murray Valley league after the Mallee league – its home since 1994 – folded at the end of last season.

The club had its longest road trip of the season of nearly three hours on Saturday to Cambrai and have two other trips well over two hours.

They had the most travel of the six clubs that played in the final year of the Mallee league.

But club president Kieran Kelly said the many hours on the road wasn’t the clincher in where Murrayville ended up.

“We’re just trying to keep footy going in the town basically,” he said.

“There is literally no other option than to travel the distances we do.

“If we went into the River Murray league we would be travelling more.

“It is just what we’re used to.”

Murrayville is the only Victorian-based club playing in the Murray Valley league made up of teams from South Australia. Picture: Murrayville Football-Netball Facebook.

Murrayville had the option to join the Pinnaroo-Lameroo merger to play in the River Murray league.

But the likelihood of no more games at Murrayville was a major factor in staying on its own in a competition that has senior football only and two netball grades.

The town’s juniors have joined other clubs including Loxton North in the Riverland league.

But a shorter season of 12 rounds compared to 15 in the former Mallee league has its advantages, particularly for farmers who play or run the club.

“Like any change, change is hard, but then it becomes the new normal,” Mr Kelly said.

“It is a shame we don’t have juniors, but if truth be known, we don’t have enough players for a junior side.

“It is good for us because we’ve got farmers.

“We’ve still got footy in town, but not everyone is stressed out at the busy times of the year.”

Bairnsdale has the mantle of most travel of any major league team in the state with four long trips to Wonthaggi, Leongatha, Warragul and Drouin.

The Redlegs have won only won one senior major league premiership in 1981, but have consistently defied the long distances and early starts on the road to be a force at underage level.

Bairnsdale’s travel scheduled increased with the addition of Drouin and Wonthaggi during the time the Redlegs dropped back and dominated the East Gippsland league between 1999 and 2010.

Bairnsdale coach, Logan Austin, attempts to tackle Maffra forward, John Butcher. Picture supplied: Bairnsdale Advertiser

But president Michael Mann said Bairnsdale was determined to “embrace” the geographic challenges it historically faced.

“We believe the kids of East Gippsland need the opportunity to play major league footy,” he said.

“There is talent in the area and we feel we’re an important part of a player’s footy journey whether they end up playing for Bairnsdale or not.

“Retention of that talent is our challenge.

“How much the travel factor plays into that is something we’ve never sat down and done the numbers on.

“But rather than complain about it, our opportunity is to embrace it and build a club people want to be part of.”

Bairnsdale has made a solid start at senior level this season under second-year coach Logan Austin, who lives in Melbourne, but travels back to East Gippsland, where he has strong family ties, for Thursday training and match days.

Originally published as Hay, Murrayville, Bairnsdale: Clubs with longest road trips in country footy