Country footy clubs in new leagues in 2021 on move, early results
Several clubs found a new home league between the final siren of 2019 and the first bounce of this year. See how their seniors have performed so far.
Just because there wasn’t anything happening on the field last year, doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of action off it.
Several clubs found themselves a new home league in between the final siren of 2019 and the first bounce of this year.
Here, we take a look at how the clubs are faring with the early rounds of the 2021 county football season completed.
FISH CREEK, FOSTER, MDU, STONY CREEK, TARWIN, TOORA
Former league: Alberton
New league: Mid Gippsland
Current position: Foster 2nd (5-1); Fish Creek 4th (5-2); MDU 7th (4-3); Tarwin 8th (2-4); Toora 9th (2-4); Stony Creek 13th (0-6)
AFTER years of reviews, debates and discussions the six remaining Alberton clubs found a new home for 2021.
Fish Creek, Foster, Meeniyan Dumbalk United, Stony Creek, Tarwin and Toora were accepted into the Mid Gippsland league last year, with 13 clubs part of the senior competition in 2021.
Foster president Ian Lyon said the best way to describe the outcome was a “sense of relief”. “After all the years of angst and anxiety to now have all that past, we can just get back to being a country community football club, doing what we do,” he said.
At the time of the season’s suspension due to the snap lockdown, the former Alberton clubs were spaced out through the Mid Gippsland’s ladder.
Foster, which won the final Alberton premiership over Stony Creek, is the highest ranked of the six, with Lyon describing the two leagues as “fairly comparable”.
YALLOURN-YALLOURN NORTH
Former league: Mid Gippsland
New league: North Gippsland
Current position: 2nd (5-1)
WHILE the Mid Gippsland league welcomed in six new clubs for this season, two of its former clubs departed, including its most recent premiership winner, Yallourn-Yallourn North.
Club communications officer Monique DeCarli said with the impending changes to the Mid Gippsland league with the addition of the remaining Alberton clubs, “we took that as an opportunity for us to review whether that league was the right decision for us going forward with having to travel a further distance for games” as well as the number of clubs increasing.
She said the club was “satisfied” with the decision last year to switch competitions, and so far this season there had been strong support off the field.
“We have had record-breaking gate entries, bar sales and canteen sales from our first three home games, so we are just overwhelmed with the support we have been receiving from not just our club and members, but the North Gippsland clubs and their members,” she said.
TRAFALGAR
Former league: Mid Gippsland
New league: Ellinbank & District
Current position: 2nd (6-0)
THE other club to depart the Mid Gippsland league last year was Trafalgar, which decided to head west to the Ellinbank and District league.
Trafalgar president Ray Wall said the population growth in the area that the Ellinbank league clubs covered and the opportunities for its junior teams were a factor in pursuing the move.
“Crowd-wise we are pretty rapt with the following from other clubs in the Ellinbank football league ... our takings are up across the board and the Ellinbank league itself, and the reason we went across, is very progressive in the junior development side of things, so we are very happy.”
Trafalgar finished sixth (5-10-1) in the 2019 season, but is currently undefeated. It had been scheduled to play the other undefeated side, Ellinbank, last weekend until the lockdown came into effect. That round has been abandoned.
“I’m predicting second or third at this stage and then play off in finals,” Wall said.
“Probably three-quarters of our side at the moment played in our 2018 premiership side, and we’ve picked up three or four pretty good players since then.”
BROADFORD
Former league: Riddell District
New league: AFL Outer East (Division 2)
Current position: 8th (0-6)
TWO clubs had an extended wait to play their first game in AFL Outer East’s seniors because of Covid-19.
The first was Berwick Springs, whose transition from junior club to a senior one was due to be completed last year when it debuted a senior team, which it did this year in Division 1. The other was Broadford, which was accepted into the competition ahead of the 2020 season.
Club president Bonnie Cavanagh said when she started as president in 2019, they undertook a “critical review” of the club.
“After that review I put it to our members and said if we don’t seek change, or we don’t review and see where we are at and where we want to be in a few years, nothing is going to change,” she said.
“We had a look at some of the neighbouring leagues around us, and put to the members, would a change of leagues be a nice refresh from the financial point of view, administration, retaining our players, recruitment and all that sort of stuff?”
In the end she said the members saw AFL Outer East as a “great opportunity for us to relaunch our club into a new era”.
She said there was a different playing style in their new league, and despite the on-field results in the seniors she remained positive.
“I look at it holistically from a club point-of-view, and the boys are very young, they’re starting out, they've got a great attitude and they are just so resilient that they are going to work their way up into a really strong core group of senior footballers,” she said.
“A lot of them are under 24. We don't really have too many of the senior bodies and minds, per se, just yet, but this is where you make that change.”
KATANDRA & TUNGAMAH
Former league: Murray
New league: Picola & District
Current position: Katandra 3rd (5-2); Tungamah 5th (5-1)
AFTER two seasons in the Murray league in 2018 and 2019, Katandra and Tungamah are back in the Picola and District Football League.
The clubs were two of the four that left the league in 2018 when it went unaffiliated with AFL Goulburn Murray for that season.
“We are a rural community so we wanted to get back to playing against other rural communities and that’s what we’ve done,” Katandra president Corey Wilson said.
It was a sentiment echoed by Tungamah president Josh Buerckner.
“It’s a better fit for us to be in a district competition and playing against communities that are a similar size to us,” he said.
But unlike when they last played in the league, now Picola and District has a single competition rather than two divisions, which were based on geography. Both teams are in the top-five. “We’re really enjoying it. It’s great getting back to playing against some of the clubs we played against back in the early 2000s and renewing some old rivalries and catching up with some old friends as well,” Buerckner said.
KANIVA LEEOR UNITED
Former league: Kowree-Naracoorte-Tatiara
New league: Horsham District
Current position: 10th (1-5)
THE border restrictions between Victoria and South Australia brought in due to coronavirus played a hand in Victorian-based Kaniva Leeor United deciding to make a shift to a new league this year.
The issue of recruiting and retaining players under the threat of border restrictions affecting their ability to play was one consideration, club president Jason Gordon said, but not the only one.
“To play against like-sized towns has been on our agenda for some time,” Gordon said.
“Also the fact that we couldn’t see how Covid wouldn't affect this season.”
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