BFNL 2024: Barwon Heads president Russell Hyland claims new entrants would compromise the draw and hurt club finances

The president of a Bellarine side has outlined why his club and others don’t want new clubs entering the competition.

Barwon Heads president Russell Hyland has had his say. Picture: Mark Wilson

Barwon Heads president Russell Hyland has declared his club is “absolutely against” new clubs joining the Bellarine competition, claiming it will compromise the draw and hurt club finances.

AFL Barwon had outlined in their Future of Football and Netball plan in March that the Bellarine Football Netball League would become a 12-team competition from 2025.

But senior hopeful Surf Coast remains the only remaining applicant after the other unknown club pulled out of the process.

BFNL presidents met last month and Hyland said the general consensus from clubs was that they wanted to maintain the current 10-team competition

BFNL clubs currently play every side twice – home and away – in their 18-round competition and Hyland believes adding new teams will cause financial shortfalls and result in an uneven fixture.

Multiple clubs have noted how even the senior football competition is in 2024 with last year’s bottom-two Portarlington – who broke a 68-game losing streak in round one – and Newcomb much more competitive.

Hyland said new entrants shouldn’t jeopardise his own club’s prospects and feels the concerns voiced by Bellarine clubs have fallen on deaf ears.

Barwon Heads is opposed to new entrants in the BFNL.

“It is a difficult one because you want to encourage new clubs and foster the game, but I don’t want to do it at the expense of my club. My No. 1 priority is my club and we’ve got to look after it, we have to make sure everything is right for Barwon Heads, and then the other clubs,” Hyland said.

“Ultimately, we spoke a month ago all the Bellarine presidents, and we just said we don’t want anyone else in.

“We have got a good competition now, it is even, it has never been more even than what it is this year and it’s an uncompromised draw. You’re not only playing some clubs once, which we’re absolutely against.”

“Personally our club hasn’t been consulted a real lot (by AFL Barwon). They do ask questions of us but it doesn’t seem like they always listen to us. We’ve said time and time and time again we don’t want this, we don’t want promotion and relegation, they didn’t listen.

“We don’t want other clubs coming in and they didn’t listen, they keep pushing it and pushing it. They are just not listening to what we’ve got to say, that’s what it seems like to me.”

Hyland highlighted his club’s Battle of the Bridge rivalry with Ocean Grove as one of the major examples of matches that could be under threat if new sides enter the competition.

“It can have massive impacts on the whole club structure,” Hyland said.

“They are the biggest days in local football and they are big money spinners for both clubs and if you don’t have one, it would be diabolical.”

Hyland said his club would knock back the opportunity to join the Geelong competition if they finish inside the top-two on club championship over the next two seasons.

“The funny thing is that people look at a club from the outside and go, ‘they’re successful’, which we have been over the last few years. It doesn’t mean we’re flush with money,” Hyland said.

“We’re only just scraping through from year to year and you go up to GFL and there’s a higher salary cap, you’ve got to recruit better players.

“Where’s that money come from? In the interests of our club we wouldn’t go into GFL. We are happy, people who live in Barwon Heads live in Barwon Heads for a reason – the environment, the community, to be along the coast.

“They don’t want to be travelling out to Lara, they will play against very similar clubs all along the coast. There is obviously Ammos, Newcomb and Modewarre but they are all similar types of clubs, community minded and townships and that sort of thing, and that’s what we hold close within the Bellarine.”

Originally published as BFNL 2024: Barwon Heads president Russell Hyland claims new entrants would compromise the draw and hurt club finances