{"id":364363,"date":"2025-12-22T10:56:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364363\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T10:56:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:56:15","slug":"shock-and-dismay-at-rdfnl-mp-weighs-in-league-president-in-hot-water-over-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364363\/","title":{"rendered":"Shock and dismay at RDFNL: MP weighs in, league president in hot water over comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

EXCLUSIVE \u2013 Local MP Mary-Anne Thomas has expressed her \u201cgenuine shock and real disappointment\u201d in the Riddell District Football Netball League for blocking the Kyneton Women\u2019s Football Club<\/a> from playing in season 2026.<\/p>\n

The MP has written to league CEO Jordan Doyle stating she was \u201cdisappointed and confused by the actions of the league\u201d in appealing against the KWFC\u2019s acceptance to the Central Victoria Football League, despite the RDFNL having rejected the women itself. AFL Victoria upheld the league\u2019s appeal, leaving KWFC unable to join the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was with genuine shock and real disappointment that I became aware of the subsequent intervention by the RDFNL in this process, particularly given that the arrangement concerned a league outside of the RDFNL\u2019s jurisdiction,\u201d Ms Thomas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outcome of this intervention has regrettably left the Kyneton women\u2019s team back at square one, undoing progress that had been achieved in good faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reasons for the RDFNL\u2019s intervention in this process remain unclear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ongoing consequences of these actions now place the participation of the Kyneton Wedgies women\u2019s team in 2026 in serious doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when we should be working collectively to strengthen and grow women\u2019s and girls\u2019 participation in sport, the situation represents a troubling setback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am disappointed and confused by the action taken by the RDFNL in this matter. It is difficult to reconcile with your stated objectives of supporting participation, fairness, and growing women\u2019s sport locally.\u201d<\/p>\n

CONTROVERSY SWELLS OVER \u201cGROOMING AND GENDER WEIRDNESS\u201d COMMENT<\/p>\n

The MP\u2019s admonishment of the RDFNL comes as controversy swells over alleged comments made by the president of the league, Brenton Knott, in relation to the women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

The Midland Express has viewed a message sent by Mr Knott to an online supporter of the Kyneton women. It read: <\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to look at the other side. They don\u2019t deserve anything \u2013 you\u2019re advocating that any team that\u2019s not happy breaks away?? How is that manageable by AFL? If you look at the principals (sic) in this \u2013 it\u2019s not about footy, it\u2019s about grooming and gender weirdness. You follow local footy, so you need to see AFL Vic and RDFNL aren\u2019t the bad ones here\u201d.<\/p>\n

Members and supporters of the Kyneton women\u2019s club have responded with shock.<\/p>\n

Leticia Hayes, whose 16-year-old daughter has trained with the women since she was 13 years old, said she\u2019d never felt that her daughter had been unsafe in their company.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s always felt supported,\u201d Ms Hayes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis (the league president) is someone who is in charge of a community sporting organisation and he holds these views.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to be held to account and the whole board needs a review if this is coming from the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

KWFC also responded with a statement condemning the league president\u2019s accusation.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyneton Women\u2019s Football Club is deeply disturbed by a message that is now public, attributed to RDFNL president Brenton Knott, which uses harmful and offensive language in relation to gender diversity and inclusion in football,\u201d the club said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen senior officials rely on rhetoric that falsely links inclusion with risk, it undermines trust, safety and confidence in the systems designed to protect participants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile KWFC will be seeking legal advice in relation to this matter, we believe it is important to publicly call out conduct and rhetoric that undermines inclusion, mischaracterises our members, or damages confidence in our club.<\/p>\n

\u201cKWFC will be submitting the content we have received to AFL integrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call on AFL Victoria to review this matter immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RDFNL was unable to respond to a request for comment before our publishing deadline this morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE \u2013 Local MP Mary-Anne Thomas has expressed her \u201cgenuine shock and real disappointment\u201d in the Riddell District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,192812,64,63,55,639,192813,192814,198097,198098,192815,85],"class_list":["post-364363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-afl-victoria","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-central-victoria-football-league-women","tag-kyneton-womens-football-club","tag-mary-anne-thomas-mp","tag-rdfnl-president","tag-riddell-district-football-netball-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}