Weekly Times | FOOTBALL in Victoria’s northwest has changed significantly since the final siren sounded last season — and more change is on the way.
Since September, the Mallee Football League has shrunk from seven clubs to five after the merger late last year of the Beulah and Hopetoun football clubs to form the Southern Mallee Giants, and Jeparit-Rainbow’s shift to the Horsham and District league.
Robinvale and Millewa league club Euston have also merged, opting to remain in Robinvale’s home competition, the Sunraysia Football League.
An AFL Victoria review of football structures in the region is already under way, encompassing eight senior leagues — Sunraysia, Millewa, Central Murray, Golden Rivers, North Central, Mallee, Wimmera, and Horsham and District.
New Mallee league president Mick Brown said he did not think his competition would continue as it was beyond this year.
But Brown would not say what he thought AFL Victoria’s recommendations would entail.
“It will be the last Mallee league season with five clubs — there’s no way we will (continue) next year with five clubs,” he said.
“They’ll either have to give us more clubs or disperse clubs.
“That is a surety, but that’s all I can say at this stage.”
The review panel is expected to release draft recommendations to affected clubs at the end of this month and finalise the recommendations before June 30.
Brown said he wanted the review panel to be “a bit brave” with its recommendations.
“But I’m not totally confident they will be,’’ he said.
“(I want them to) do more than just say, ‘Here’s the Mallee league, that’s the reason we started this review, they’ve only got five clubs, probably the easiest thing would be to split them up’.
“If that’s the case, well I don’t think they’re being very brave.”
The review process includes asking the remaining Mallee league clubs — Sea Lake-Nandaly, the Southern Mallee Giants, Walpeup-Underbool, Ouyen United and Woomelang-Lascelles — which league they would prefer to join if the competition disbands at the end of the season.
AFL Wimmera Mallee, Central Murray and Sunraysia region general manager, Bruce Petering, said offering outside clubs the chance to join the Mallee league had been met with a “lukewarm” response.
Petering said the review, which was announced in July, had been triggered by uncertainty about the Mallee league’s future.
Evidence suggested clubs were already investigating a switch to more stable competitions in a bid to shore up their futures.
The Weekly Times understands the Giants last year flagged interest in joining the neighbouring North Central league.
But now their reported preference is the Horsham and District league, where they would join Jeparit-Rainbow.
Ouyen United has spoken with Sunraysia Football League representatives, but the AFL Victoria review has put a freeze on any club movements.
Jeparit-Rainbow received an exception from the freeze in November, when AFL Wimmera Mallee granted the club permission to move to the Horsham and District league on “compassionate grounds”.
President Brett Fisher said the club would have struggled to field even one senior football side had it stayed in the Mallee league.
Fisher said the move was driven by players, mostly based south of the league, who said they did not want to continue making the trip north.
“When we first got knocked back in our quest to join the (Horsham) district league, we realised things were going to be dire if we had to stay in the Mallee league,” he said.
Brown said that news of Jeparit-Rainbow’s defection was not welcomed at first by the remaining Mallee clubs.
“Probably the majority of clubs weren’t happy with five, but they also realised that for this season, that’s the way we had to go,” he said.
“We had to let due process take its course.”
The Southern Mallee Giants will be coached by Wimmera-Mallee football legend Geoff Burdett, who said the Hopetoun-Beulah merger was necessary.
“The transition with the two clubs has been unbelievable,” Burdett said.
“Everybody has been that excited, with good numbers on the training track.
“And a lot of supporters are coming along just to see what’s going on.”
Robinvale-Euston president Tony Calarco, who was president at Robinvale prior to the merger, said both clubs would have struggled to fill both a senior and reserves side if they had not joined forces.
“Our numbers are increasing, interest around town has definitely increased and the feedback is pretty positive from most people,” Calarco said.
“I think most people around the area think (the merger) was a good thing.”
Petering said the review panel would take into account several issues including diversity in club size and financial stability, populations and the burdens recruitment placed on regional cities.
“There may well be an initial set of recommendations that looks at the immediate issues that we need to address and then we may certainly look at a period of time into the future as to where we think football should be at,” he said.
“We know in our more remote areas that our populations are going to continue to decline and not increase.
“We know that trend is there and that it’s going to continue.”