Surf Coast Suns strongly support model and implore rivals to think of big picture as South Barwon, Ocean Grove also in favour

A club that is poised to enter AFL Barwon’s proposed competition model has shared their view on the changes. Plus, another club has detailed why they want to see it happen.

Surf Coast Suns have voiced their view on the competition restructure. Picture: Alan Barber

Surf Coast Suns have expressed their strong support for the new competition model tabled by AFL Barwon, imploring opposing clubs to consider the big picture with their overall position on the proposal.

The official plan for the future of football and netball put to clubs this month included Surf Coast entering the restructured competition, which would involve three divisions headed by a lucrative Premier League, in 2025.

The eventual introduction of junior clubs Surf Coast and Armstrong Creek into the senior ranks was one of AFL Barwon’s major aims of the plan.

The competition overhaul has hit a snag with a recent vote from the Geelong Football Netball League stating that nine clubs of the 12 clubs were against the changes, with South Barwon the only club to vote in favour.

“Our club is fully supportive and we have been very happy with AFL Barwon’s consultations. We as a club have approached them via email and phone and have had discussions regarding and they have been very supportive and have listened to our views,” a South Barwon FNC spokesperson said.

Surf Coast Suns Gold premiers. Under-14 Div Geelong Advertiser Cup: Bell Post Hill v Surf Coast Suns Gold. Picture: Alan Barber

Geelong & District Football Netball League clubs were not included in the latest official proposal and league president Neville Whitley confirmed that they would remain as their own entity.

The Bellarine Football Netball League haven’t had an official vote but sources suggest that most clubs are against the concept.

However, it is understood that private support of the model from clubs is stronger than what has been voiced in the public domain. Data shared with clubs in October by AFL Barwon at a consultation revealed that 46 per cent of clubs were supportive of the changes, with 25 per cent opposed and 30 per cent yet to provide a position.

Suns president Jay Williams believes the system would see all clubs benefit, describing the club championship points system, which allows clubs to be relegated and promoted between divisions based off their performances across a three-year period, as “innovative.”

“I think it breeds healthy competitive successful environments across all the levels. Junior footy, junior netball, senior footy, senior netball,” Williams said.

“The way they’ve pitched to us, the presidents and people and things like that lately, is a really good model around having teams have to be in a certain position for a couple of years before they go up and down.

“To have the whole club encompassing points system where you’re not just strong in one area, you are strong across the board which will help you be sustainable.

“I think it is a really innovative approach to sport and I think it can work really well if people buy in and don’t focus on the small negatives. If they focus on the entire picture of participation in community sport across the board, I think most people can agree that it is going to be good – especially for us.

“The bigger picture is what I’m seeing and that’s allowing teams to come in and be sustainable. Armstrong Creek will be not long behind us and that western grove corridor is going to be quite big so I’m sure there is going to be more.”

Surf Coast Suns’ under-13 netball team in action. Picture: Alan Barber

Williams said conversations between him and AFL Barwon regional manager Ed Wilson about their push to enter senior sides helped push along the restructure model.

He believes it is impossible to please everyone with the new plans and the governing body has the power to pull the trigger even if there isn’t majority support.

“I guess (our push) prompted them to sort of restructure the whole competition because basically it has been the way it’s been for a very long time and you can almost predict the footy results every week,” Williams said.

“AFL Barwon, they run the whole thing so they are going to come to a decision and I think all of the clubs are going to have to accept it one way or another.

“The Premier division is going to be really hard to get into and so it should. The clubs that are in those positions, they deserve to be playing against teams of similar stature so that it is competitive and you don’t know what the results are going to be and therefore it makes the teams underneath work harder to get into that.”

The Suns, based in north Torquay, will look to enter the BFNL if the restructure does not go ahead, with their thriving netball club already well positioned to field a senior side.

Ocean Grove is another supporter of the model because of its strong ambitions to enter the proposed Premier League.

Players leaving the Grubbers to play in the GFNL or in other top-tier competitions is a common occurrence, with about five leaving the football club for this reason in recent years.

Ocean Grove broke its 19-year A-Grade premiership drought in netball but their football club hasn’t won a flag since 2003, which was the Grubbers’ eighth premiership in the space of 10 years.

But the Grubbers have 54 sides across football and netball including their junior feeder club the Cobras, and they are eager to enter the top competition in the region.

Ocean Grove celebrate their netball grand final win. Picture: Alan Barber

“Main reason is it gives us an opportunity to create a pathway for our kids to play at the highest level in our region without having to leave the club,” Ocean Grove president Pete Smith said.

“I can get (opposing club’s) point of view but at the end of the day everyone is doing what is best for their club and we think what’s best for us, when the time’s right, to move up hopefully.

“We know our football has got to be stronger than it currently is. Netball is strong, football is not as strong as it should be and we’ve got to look at the overarching impacts on what it means financially and things like that.

“As an overarching concept I think it is good to allow movement between divisions, whether three years is right, I don’t know what the best model is, but our club is looking for a mechanism to allow us to do that which is why we are interested.

“The fact that all of us are football netball clubs makes it different because you’ve got to take a whole club view.

“That’s why they are doing that club championship model because you have got to take into consideration the entire club, not just football.”

The quashed restructure won’t put paid to the Grubbers’ aims, with the clubs already having conversations with AFL Barwon about joining the GFNL in the future.

“If it doesn’t get off the ground, we need a way forward. Because the aspiration doesn’t go away because the concept or the model has, we still have the aspiration. So we would be looking at a plan B from them,” Smith said.

“No way known we will be ready in 2025. I don’t know the timing but it definitely around that three year point potentially, who knows.”

Originally published as Surf Coast Suns strongly support model and implore rivals to think of big picture as South Barwon, Ocean Grove also in favour