Four football netball clubs in a regional league set for the axe have been given a stay of execution next season, with the intrinsic value to their small communities a factor in the decision.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Central Rivers Board accepted the transfers of the Hay and Moulamein football netball clubs in south-west New South Wales, and the Murrabit and Wandella football netball clubs in northern Victoria, to the Central Murray League.<\/p>\n
The clubs are currently part of the Golden Rivers Football Netball league, which is due to close at the end of this season.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, a Central Rivers Board report recommended the league close due to dwindling player and volunteer numbers, with clubs told to find a new league.<\/p>\n
The board is the body in charge of both the Central Murray and Golden Rivers leagues.<\/p>\n
Central Rivers board member Stuart King said community impact was considered when making the decision on the transfers.<\/p>\n
“These clubs want to retain their identity in their communities and so that’s all part of it \u2026 providing opportunities for clubs to continue participating,” Mr King said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Central Rivers board member and Swan Hill Rural City Council mayor Stuart King says multiple factors were considered. (Picture: Swan Hill Rural City Council)<\/p>\n
However, Mr King said it was the clubs’ responsibility to remain competitive in the Central Murray league.<\/p>\n
“The destiny of a club is in the club’s hands,” Mr King said.<\/p>\n
“It’s not in the board’s hands, not in the AFL’s hands.<\/p>\n
“Ultimately, it’s been their choice, it’s been their decision as to what they do for the future of their club.”<\/p>\n
Wandella Football Netball Club president Leigh Hollingworth said the decision finally gave the club clarity moving forward.<\/p>\n
“We know exactly where we’re going next year, and it gives us that certainty when we’re approaching players to recruit and appointing coaches \u2026 we can now say we’ll be playing in the Central Murray in 2026,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a good result and it’s an exciting time for the club.”<\/p>\n
Mr Hollingworth admitted the move came with its challenges.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Leigh Hollingworth says the decision gives the club certainty for next year. (ABC News: Nethma Dandeniya)<\/p>\n
“We understand that it’s going to be different to the Golden Rivers, it’s going to be a higher standard of competition,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s some very good players and very good teams in there, so we don’t think that we’re going to come in and, you know, be one of the top teams or anything like that.”<\/p>\n
Concerns over competitiveness<\/p>\n
Moulamein Football Netball Club president Neville Willox said his club would enter next season with an open mind, he had concerns about its future as part of the bigger league.<\/p>\n
“If you look at the [Golden Rivers] this year, it’s very even and that’s what you want in football,” Mr Willcox said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve all enjoyed each other as clubs over the past years, competing, and it’s more like a social gathering of a Saturday \u2026 rather than just there to play, win and go home.<\/p>\n
“That’s what we’re looking to in the future \u2014 having that social family-friendly football of a Saturday where all the young people in the club are taken along on the ride.”<\/p>\n
Neville Willox is concerned about his club’s future competitiveness.\u00a0 (ABC News: Nethma Dandeniya)<\/p>\n
Mr Willox would have liked to have seen two separate divisions created.<\/p>\n
“If you look at all country football, there’s so many competitions where there’s clubs that are losing by big margins,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I think the people that are running football need to look harder at fixing these competitions up to make them much more competitive.”<\/p>\n
AFL Victoria and the Regional Council will now decide whether to approve the transfers.<\/p>\n
Macorna to apply to Loddon Valley league<\/p>\n
Wednesday’s decision has left Macorna as the only football netball club from the Golden Rivers competition without a league for 2026.<\/p>\n
Macorna president Tenielle Edge said the club would apply to join the Loddon Valley Football Netball League in the coming days.<\/p>\n
“We think that there’s a lot of clubs that are like us in that league \u2014 community-minded, and we’re just excited to be joining them and making a fresh start,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tenielle Edge says the club will apply to join the Loddon Valley league. (Supplied: Tenielle Edge\u00a0)<\/p>\n
Ms Edge said the Central Murray League was not feasible for Macorna and the move would have had long-term implications for the club.<\/p>\n
“We’re just a small county club that doesn’t have a township, so we just don’t see ourselves fitting into that league,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Factoring in travel and the cost, we just didn’t think it was going to work for Macorna.<\/p>\n
“It’s no secret to anyone that we’ve had a bit of a tough year on the field and on the court \u2026 that’s hard to continue with people not enjoying losing week in, week out, and we felt that would be the likelihood in the Central Murray.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four football netball clubs in a regional league set for the axe have been given a stay of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,9117,56118,56120,39708,596,56121,9736,56122,56119,85,3362],"class_list":["post-71580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-rules","tag-central-murray-football-netball-league","tag-central-rivers-board","tag-communities","tag-football","tag-golden-rivers","tag-netball","tag-regional-sport","tag-regional-town","tag-sports","tag-transfer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71580","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=71580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}