Weekly Times |AFL Victoria’s commission structure could be about to cross the border.
An interim South East regional commission is meeting with the three South Australian leagues it could oversee — Western Border, Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara and Mid South Eastern — regarding a proposed charter currently being distributed.
Some of those leagues straddle the border, with clubs like Casterton Sandford in the Western Border league based in Victoria.
The charter is understood to cover the role, responsibility and authority of the proposed commission.
Should the commission be given the all clear from the stakeholders to form, it would be the first of its kind across the border.
South Australian Community Football League’s Scott Duncan, the regional football advisory council member for the Murray South East zone, said there was support for the commission structure to be examined, but its exact nature needed to be decided.
“We’re at that stage where the interim region commission has done its due diligence and come up with what it thinks a region commission could look like,” Duncan said.
“Now we’re just consulting with the leagues on whether they have the same view as what the interim regional commission does.”
A South East working party was formed after the 2012 Southern Border Review conducted by the then-VCFL and SACFL, which saw the Western Border league dropping from nine clubs to six in 2013.
At the end of last year the three leagues gave the all-clear for the interim commission, which is currently chaired by former Wattle Range Council chief executive Frank Brennan, to develop a charter.
Secretary and manager of the Western Border league, David Heard, was a working party member and backed the formation of a commission.
“My point of view is it’s probably time for a bit of vision and hopefully that’s the way the other stakeholders will see it as well,” he said.
Heard said it would be a delicate juggling act “but we’ve got to try to get all those people together and start thinking in the same mindset”.
Clubs and leagues have until the end of August to submit feedback on the proposal.
