{"id":684531,"date":"2026-05-21T05:23:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/684531\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T05:23:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:23:20","slug":"behind-the-smiles-and-celebration-a-crisis-looms-for-gippsland-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/684531\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the smiles and celebration, a crisis looms for Gippsland football"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n The game locally brings a lot of joy and connection to country communities, while feeding a billion-dollar industry at the top level, but behind the smile, on this day at Foster, on Saturday, May 16, some of the problems for the game in Gippsland loomed. While Foster won the main game against an uncompetitive Hill End 175 points to 32, the Tigers aren’t fielding either Under 16 or Under 18 teams this year where Hill End is on top of the ladder, or close to it, in each of those competitions. It’s not an isolated situation. What’s happening in football and netball in Gippsland at the moment? What needs to be protected and nurtured and what needs to change? <\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, May 19, AFL Gippsland officially launched a wholesale review of all aspects of league operations, which they are calling a \u201ccollaborative 10-year vision for the future of football and netball across Gippsland\u201d.<\/p>\n

To be staged over the next 19 months, starting with consultation between AFL Victoria\/AFL Gippsland and local leagues and clubs, the process is targeting approval and implementation by \u201c2028 onward\u201d.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s ironic, however, is that on the eve of one of the games greatest-ever players, Scott Pendlebury, breaking though for his record-making 433rd game, at the place where it all started, in Sale, they can\u2019t put enough Under 18 players together to field a team in the Gippsland league.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s not sounding alarm bells at the highest levels, it should be.<\/p>\n

In the football-mad town of Wonthaggi, Bass Coast\u2019s only major-league club, Wonthaggi Power, went through the same problem a few years ago and had to move heaven and earth to relaunch its Under 18s in 2025.<\/p>\n

Their next round, at a level where young players need to be playing every week, on Saturday, May 30, they have a bye because there\u2019s no match scheduled for them at Sale.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s indicative of the main problem facing football today, the transition between Auskick and junior football, through the Under 16s and Under 18s, to senior football and potentially, to the very top level of the sport as exemplified by the greatest-ever Gippsland footballer, on the eve of his most celebrated moment.<\/p>\n

\"\"Scott Pendlebury’s old team, the Sale Under 18s, no longer take the field. Photo courtesy of Foxsports.com.au<\/p>\n

AFL Gippsland posted details of the meeting on its website:<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Tuesday, 19th May 2026, AFL Gippsland officially introduced the Gippsland Charter at a combined meeting of Senior and Junior Heads of Leagues hosted at Lowanna College.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all local leagues, Netball Victoria, and regional Umpire Associations in attendance, the meeting marked a landmark collective commitment to work towards a collaborative 10-year vision for the future of football and netball across Gippsland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evening also served as a formal welcome to AFL Gippsland\u2019s new Region Council Chair, Karen Cain, who was officially introduced to stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Participation levels are up, they say, but you need to look at the data. More than 40 players have turned up to play veterans with the new Korumburra-Bena Over 35 Veterans’ team but many clubs are having trouble putting Under 18 and Under 16 teams on the field. <\/p>\n

Among those in attendance was Acting Chair of the West Gippsland Football Netball Competition Board, John White.<\/p>\n

We asked him about what happened on the night.<\/p>\n

I understand you represented the West Gippsland league at the Gippsland Charter launch on Tuesday at which all leagues, Netball Victoria, and regional Umpire Associations were in attendance. What was the main thrust of the meeting?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t like to call these things a \u201creview\u201d because they feel there can be negative connotations of that following a long history of reviews such as the failed G25, but it was basically a launch of what they\u2019re calling a \u201ccollaborative 10-year vision for the future of football and netball across Gippsland\u201d,\u201d said Mr While.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve set out a timeline, which has been published, holding consultations with leagues and clubs from May this year to February next year, setting their priorities from March 2027 to December 2027 and then implementation from 2028 onwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the reality is there are issues which are presenting themselves right now that need to be addressed that won\u2019t wait until 2028,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"They didn’t have much to say about netball. What are the challenges facing netball in Gippsland?Was there time for Q&A and discussion?<\/p>\n

\u201cNot as much as I would have liked but of the eight questions that were asked, six of them were about the problems transitioning young players from participation levels at Auskick, Juniors and Youth through to seniors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of contact across Gippsland and other country leagues and it\u2019s a consistent problem right through, with good participation at the younger levels but difficulty getting the kids through to Under 16s and especially Under 18s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey put up some slides about growth across all areas but that\u2019s certainly not been my recent experience. That\u2019s where the problem really begins. You\u2019ve got good engagement in Auskick and in juniors, up to say 15, but that\u2019s when the kids are walking away, not progressing through to the Under 16s and especially Under 18s and then through to senior football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need to single out individual clubs, it\u2019s right across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr White said there was lively discussion during a networking break, but he would have liked to see more time for feedback and opportunity to address specific issues.<\/p>\n

Was there much comment about the health of netball across the Gippsland region?<\/p>\n

\u201cNot really, although a Netball Vic representative was in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The clubs are yet to hear much about the “Gippsland Charter”, the vision for the next 10 years, call it what you like.<\/p>\n

The leagues across the region, but not the clubs, were invited.<\/p>\n

Leongatha Football Netball Club President Mal Mackie is one of those still waiting to hear what transpired.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know anything about it. Yeah, there\u2019s been talk but they\u2019ve had that many reviews, our heads are spinning,\u201d Mr Mackie told the Sentinel-Times this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine they\u2019ll tell us when they\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Mackie acknowledged that the transition to senior football was the difficult one for many clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did miss a year with our Under 18s a few years ago, but we\u2019ve got OK numbers at the moment, and Wonthaggi has done a great job getting their Under 18s going again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bigger towns will usually be alright. Sale\u2019s the exception at the moment, but it\u2019s the smaller clubs who are struggling with this the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The numbers are trending up, they say, but how even is the growth across the various districts, and across the individual clubs and leagues in Gippsland?<\/p>\n

The challenges for clubs and leagues across Gippsland aren\u2019t limited to transitioning young male footballers through foundation programs including Vickick and junior football, to the senior levels, as much as it has been highlighted as the biggest risk to the game right through to the AFL.<\/p>\n

Some of the other problems include:<\/p>\n

Salary caps and player paymentsThe player points systemUncompetitive teamsThe league structuresLoss of employment and therefore players for more remote country clubs and leaguesFalling numbers of volunteersFemale facilities for netball and football<\/p>\n

More to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The game locally brings a lot of joy and connection to country communities,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-684531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684531","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=684531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}