Yarra Ranges football: Brookers go from top to the bottom

GEMBROOK-COCKATOO is fac­ing the threat of relegation in AFL Yarra Ranges Senior Football, only one season after winning the Division 2 flag.

Bottom rung: Gembrook-Cockatoo must get wins on the board to avoid relegation. Picture: David Crosling

GEMBROOK-COCKATOO is fac­ing the threat of relegation in AFL Yarra Ranges Senior Football, only one season after winning the Division 2 flag.

The Brookers and Warburton Millgrove, winless up to Saturday and the leading contenders for relegation from Division 1, went toe-to-toe in a match with ramifications for the loser.

The Burras won by 64 points, 20.13 (133) to 10.9 (69), leaving Gembrook-Cockatoo with nine games to climb off the bottom of the ladder and a bit of ground to make up on field to do so.

“Obviously it’s not a good outcome for the club for what we want to achieve, but we’re not relegated yet, there are still nine games to go,” coach Matt O’Neil said.

Gembrook-Cockatoo played in three losing Division 1 grand finals in 2010-12 before finishing on the bottom of the ladder on percentage the next year and returning to Division 2 for 2014.

The Brookers, who beat Kinglake in last year’s Division 2 grand final to earn their return to Division 1, is not the first team to battle to negotiate the step up.

Yarra Glen spent 2011 and 2015 in Division 1, as did Alexandra in 2009, while conversely Olinda Ferny Creek (2009) and Healesville (2013) dropped back to Division 2 for single seasons.

Emerald went into the top tier after a 2011 Division 2 premiership, and won another when it dropped back in 2015.

In the past 10 seasons Monbulk, Mt Evelyn, Upwey ­Tecoma, Wandin, Warburton Millgrove and Woori Yallock have not moved out of Division 1 and Healesville and ­Olinda Ferny Creek have played in eight.

Debate is raging in the Mornington Peninsula and Geelong areas introducing similar structures in their football competitions.

Despite Gembrook-­Cockatoo’s predicament, O’Neil, who coached South East league battler Hampton Park in 2014-15, said he was a “big advocate of it”.

“For (Hampton Park), they need it. Every club needs to have a turn of having their time at the bottom and the top,” he said.

“Divisional footy is a must for club success and for clubs’ survival. Hampton Park are not going to survive in the Casey (now called South East) comp any longer if they keep them there.

“For Gembrook, it’s always going to be Yarra Valley ... outside of that we want to be in the top tier ... that’s just the club culture.”

Because of its lower percentage, O’Neil believes the Brookers will need to win more games than Warburton Millgrove to avoid a return to Division 2.

The Round 11 match against Emerald is a “line-in-the-sand game” and O’Neil said a loss there would mean “pushing everything uphill from there”.

The final home-and-away game, against Warburton Millgrove, already had a big circle around it on the calendar.

This is the first season since 2012 the club has fielded an under-18 team and O’Neil said “our focus is on them”. None of the kids will play seniors against Healesville this week in preparation for Emerald.