Revealed: 13 country footy clubs seeking new leagues

A Gippsland club has become the latest to request a transfer amid more than a dozen clubs seeking potential moves around the state. See the latest.

Morwell East will make a third bid in as many seasons to join the North Gippsland league as activity in the club transfer space exploded before the June 30 cut-off.

Morwell East again wants out of the 13-team Mid Gippsland league with club president Colin King citing the financial “flow on effects” of fans not attending away games to partly justify mounting another attempt to join North Gippsland.

Also wanting out of their current leagues at the end of this season are Gisborne, Ultima, Drouin, Pakenham and Officer.

Maryborough is attempting to come out of recess and play in the Maryborough Castlemaine District league next season and Maiden Gully-YCW has applied to join the Bendigo league in 2027.

Morwell East is mounting a fresh bid to leave the Mid Gippsland league. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

Golden Rivers clubs Hay, Macorna, Wandella, Murrabit and Moulamein also could form a new competition under the Picola District league, which is not affiliated with the AFL.

Ultima, which presently plays in the Golden Rivers, has applied a second time to join Central Murray.

King said the North Gippsland league “geographically is a better fit” for the club which wasn’t able to resurrect an under-18s team this season.

“The beauty of Mid Gippy in the past was that all your opposition was within half an hour,” he said.

“The flow on effects of people not travelling to away games affects gates, bar, canteen.

“We recruit from Morwell and Traralgon and that’s where players want to play including juniors.”

Foster, Fish Creek, MDU, Stony Creek, Tarwin and Toora all joined Mid Gippsland when the Alberton league was closed down in 2020.

Gisborne wants to join Ballarat after being in Bendigo since 2000 and Drouin, Pakenham and Officer want to enter West Gippsland.

Two years after being rejected by the Heathcote District league, Maiden Gully-YCW will attempt to leave Loddon Valley and join Bendigo in 2027.

“I’ve got no comment to make on our future,” Maiden Gully YCW president Chris Garlick said.

AFL Victoria community football manager John O’Donohue will oversee applications from clubs to change leagues under new rules introduced this year. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

The club was blocked from entering an under-18s team in the Bendigo league last year as a stepping stone towards entering the major competition that has lost Kyneton and Maryborough in back-to-back years and potentially Gisborne next season.

AFL Victoria brought forward the club transfer window this year.

To make an application to move clubs, in part, had to produce evidence members were behind moving to another league, could financially support the change and whether the move benefited the league they wanted to join.