Weekly Times | SEA Lake-Nandaly has been given the green light by AFL Victoria Country to join the North Central Football League next season.
The club was informed this afternoon of the result of the appeal into whether its request to join the league would be permitted.
The Tigers’ current league, Mallee, will not exist next season following the completion of the North West Structural Review and they sought to join the North Central competition.
The review panel wanted the Tigers to merge with Woomelang-Lascelles and move to the Central Murray league, and a move on their own to the North Central league was seen as a short-term or “less than satisfactory” option.
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Sea Lake-Nandaly president Paul Summerhayes said it was a “hell of a relief” to have heard the news.
“We were unsure of which way it would go, you’re never confident of these things, although we had plenty of good reasons for going there,” he said.
“It’s a satisfying feeling knowing you have got a home to go to, and common sense has prevailed.”
The move by Sea Lake-Nandaly into the North Central league was in line with a recommendation under the structural review, but did not find wholesale support from the AFL Central Victoria commission.
Sea Lake-Nandaly’s request to join the league narrowly won favour with the North Central board in a 4-3 vote, but five of the seven existing North Central league clubs were against the Tigers’ admission.
Sea Lake-Nandaly and the league were requested to lodge submissions for an appeal to decide if the Tigers’ move would be allowed, and the league’s submission included the views of its clubs.
AFL Victoria representatives yesterday informed the club the appeal panel had decided to allow the Tigers to join the North Central league, upholding the review’s recommendation and the club’s wishes.
North Central league chairman Kevin Anderson — who had the casting vote for the board — says he would have resigned if Sea Lake-Nandaly was refused entry at any stage, claiming it made “no sense” for them not to be granted permission.
“If that had of been the case I didn’t like the way the league would’ve been heading with only seven sides,” he said.
“In the next couple of years I thought it would’ve been very shaky if we lost a side.”
Denis Goode, president of reigning North Central premier St Arnaud — one of the five clubs against the move — said his club also believed the league needed more clubs or it risked going in the same direction as the Mallee league.
But he said they wanted the new clubs to come from the south and east as it had concerns about the declining population of the Mallee region.
He said the addition of the Tigers would also make it harder to attract other clubs from those areas, and recruit and keep players, because of the travel factor.
“But the umpire has given his decision so we move on and try and work with them and hopefully they last,” Goode said.
AFL Central Murray, Sunraysia and Wimmera region general manager Bruce Petering said the process was adhered to throughout by all parties.
“We now have a result and we can all move forward. Sea Lake have got a home, and let’s get on with it now,” Petering said.