North Central: Grand final venue switch to Donald as Wedderburn stays flag race

Wedderburn was locked in as the North Central league grand final host, but their late season charge has led to a change in venue. See why.

Wedderburn’s late season charge in the North Central league has forced the club to forego financially lucrative grand final hosting rights.

A longstanding policy of playing all finals at neutral venues led to switching the grand final to Donald on September 14.

Wedderburn remains in the hunt for an against-the-odds flag by beating Donald in Saturday’s first semi-final with Donald to also host the second semi-final between Sea Lake-Nandaly and Birchip-Watchem.

Charlton will host the preliminary final between the second semi-final loser and Wedderburn.

Wedderburn was announced as the grand final venue in July following a $7 million upgrade of its home ground, Donaldson Park.

“The league rules state finals must be played on a neutral ground,” North Central league spokesman Lance Standfield said.

“Based on the fact that Donald hasn’t had a grand final since 2013 it will be good for them to host it now.

“We’ve had no kickback and everyone is pretty comfortable with the decision.

“(Wedderburn) has had three hard games in a row and come up trumps each time, so they’ve earnt a week off.”

North Central Football-Netball League’s Lance Standfield.

Wedderburn was responsible for denying last year’s runner-up Nullawil a finals berth with crucial wins in the last two rounds against Nullawil and Donald.

It sealed fourth spot by beating Donald by 10 points in the last round and followed up with another win over the Royal Blues by 12-points in the first semi-final.

“Our group have all grown up together, played a lot of junior footy together and had a lot of success through juniors,” Wedderburn coach Tom Metherell said.

“They’re all getting to an age where they are starting to understand senior footy a bit more.

“Internally we’ve had a lot of faith in how we’d go, but externally I don’t think many people had us getting as far as what we have.”

Metherell joined Wedderburn after the last two years at Cohuna Kangas which followed a decade at North Bendigo.

Metherell, Noah Furlong and Oscar Holt, who hasn’t played since 2019, are the only new additions to the team from last year.

The North Central league posted record gate-takings for Saturday’s first semi-final at Birchip of $17,038, which eclipsed the $15,237 at Sea Lake last year.

Meanwhile, the first finals match between the two Wangaratta clubs in the Ovens & Murray league since 1989 will also be played at a neutral venue on Saturday.

Their clash 35 years ago was played at the Rovers’ home ground with the host club winning by 112 points.

But a subsequent policy shift to neutral venues with the exception of the grand final means the match will be played at Corowa’s John Foord Oval.