Maiden Gully junior football club makes move to join Bendigo league for 2024

A central Victorian club has lodged a second application to field an under-18 team in a competition which could lead them to fielding seniors and reserves in 2025. Here is what we know.

Maiden Gully YCW Eagles Junior Football Club is confident approval to play in the Bendigo league’s under-18 competition can lead to the club being the 10th team in seniors and reserves as well.

The club has applied to join the Bendigo league under-18 competition, taking over a recently failed application from the Maiden Gully YCW Eagles senior club who tried to become the team who replaced Kyneton in the competition.

Kyneton left the Bendigo league last year to join the Riddell Districts league, leaving nine teams in the Bendigo league seniors, reserves and under-18s.

Maiden Gully YCW’s junior and senior teams are different entities but both represent and work together to provide a pathway for those in the town to play football.

The junior teams play in the Bendigo Junior Football League from under-9s to under-16s with the seniors and reserves playing in the Loddon Valley league.

Maiden Gully YCW’s junior team is looking to compete in the Bendigo Football Netball League. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

Since 2021 no under-18 team from Maiden Gully has played in any competition after the senior team withdrew the side from the Loddon Valley league citing a desire to develop their players elsewhere.

The senior team initially made the bid to join the Bendigo league last year but it was rejected by AFL Central Victoria.

Now, the junior team hopes it has better luck.

“The initial application was put in by the senior team, and we’ve been working closely with them,” Maiden Gully YCW junior president Mick Sheehan said.

“When that was rejected, from our point of view we wanted to get our players playing at the best level we possibly can and for us we want to get an under-18s team as soon as possible and Bendigo makes sense for us.

“If you look from under-12s, 14s and 16s the other clubs we are playing against at the moment they are aligned to the senior teams of South (Bendigo), Sandhurst and Golden Square.

“If we want to continue to be aligned then the next step is under-18s so the competition level stays the same.”

The Bendigo Football Netball League could have 10 teams in under-18 next year. Picture:

Sheehan said the goal would be for the juniors to play under-18s in the Bendigo league in 2024 before the seniors followed suit in 2025 with seniors and reserves.

“We’re hoping to align with the senior club in 2025,” he said.

“For us the push would to go to BFL and that’s why we’ve gone this way. But it depends on where that lands in the 2025 season.

“We would pose similar structures to the other BFNL clubs if we were successful for getting the senior club in.”

Sheehan added the longer this takes to finalise the team being in the competition, the harder it will be for the team to form.

There’s people waiting for a decision to be made.

“Every month it goes on we continue to not be able to give a clear indication to our players from last year or kids who have left the past year or two that we might be able to bring back (we can play) until we get a firm answer,” Sheehan said.

“We’re hoping we can get that core 10-15 to build around but it’s going to be a challenge the longer this goes on.

“We’re going to lose players to other clubs.”

Interim Region General Manager of AFL Central Victoria Cameron Tomlins said the new application had been lodged but it won’t be looked at until Monday when the local offices re-open.

He added a resolution to the application, one way or the other, would be finalised by either the end of this month or in the first week of February.

Originally published as Maiden Gully junior football club makes move to join Bendigo league for 2024