By Tyler Wright
With worrying numbers of regional football and netball clubs across the state have folded ahead of the upcoming season, the Outer East Football Netball League (OEFNL) has been looking to help clubs that are struggling.
“So far in metropolitan country footy, there’s eight clubs that have gone into recess this year, and that would be a record high; and there’ll be more,” OEFNL chairman Tony Mitchell said.
“Struggles have been financial for clubs; we reimbursed all clubs, all fees and charges back in 2020, in [2021] we only had half the season, we had the full season last year but the biggest challenges for the clubs, the real challenge of footy and netball is particularly footy reserves players because a lot of those guys can earn money on a Saturday working that are playing sport,” Mr Mitchell said.
Impacted by floods in October 2022, Mr Mitchell said the league committee has been focusing on Yarra Glen Football and Netball Club.
“We’re actually going to give them three sets of football jumpers, which we’ll pay for,” Mr Mitchell said.
“They’ve lost everything…they can’t do anything to get the club rooms up so they can be functional,” Mr Mitchell said.
“The other thing is how’s it going to leave them financially because they can’t have functions and events.”
Mr Mitchell said clubs in the OEFNL are sitting at an appropriate amount of players registered, with some needing to hunt down more registrations.
He also said clubs in the southeast corridor and western corridor including Pakenham, Berwick Springs and Narre Warren are set to grow.
“We’re at three years of consolidation and then other areas might grow, like southeast corridor and the western corridor,” he said.
“There’s a lot of population down there; we’ve just got to make sure that there’s an opportunity to develop new clubs and assist people to get into the sport.”
The 2023 OEFNL season will begin on 15 April.
