Press Releaase | Last night I was joined by RDFNL Board President Ollie Matthews and AFL Goldfields RGM Rod Ward in a meeting with several members of the Broadford FNC Committee & coaching panel.

During the meeting, we discussed the current situation across both Football and Netball codes.

The Football code has been hit very hard, with a large number of senior players having left the club for a variety of reasons. It was mentioned that the players who have collectively won the last 3 senior Best & Fairest awards have departed, along with others who figured prominently in club B&F voting last year.

Numbers at training for the Under 18.5 team have been extremely low, and the club has been making a number of enquiries, both within the town and also to surrounding areas, in an effort to generate sufficient numbers to be able to field a team.

In the Netball, the club is unable to field an A Grade team, as almost all of the (A Grade) players from last season are unavailable, several of whom may look a bit out of place on the Netball court in 2017 as expectant mothers!

Despite all of these obstacles, the club is pressing forward in season 2017. New Club President Greg Holcombe is determined to see the club remain a viable entity in the RDFNL, and together with Secretary Paul Dunbar, they are enlisting support from people in and around the town who are able to get involved and help out with the running of the club. We met the new treasurer & new netball coordinator, both who had only come on board in recent weeks, following the efforts of Greg & Paul to rally the town of Broadford to get behind their local Football Netball Club.

In difficult circumstances it was uplifting to see that the efforts of a handful of people would ensure that the Broadford colours would again take the field/court in 2017. I can confirm the club will not field an A Grade netball team, and we are working hard to ensure the Under 18.5 Football team are going to be ready for action next weekend. I would just personally like to thank Greg, Paul and the other key members of the Broadford Committee for their efforts over the past few months. Without the work of these people, it’s somewhat possible we could have entered season 2017 without them, and that would have been disappointing across a number of different levels.

I wish the club well for this season, and thank them for their honesty and transparency during our meeting last night.

Steve Williams

RDFNL Operations Manager