Sport
30 May, 2024
MCDFNL and Loddon Valley investigated by Maryborough FNC for potential move
More information has emerged in regards to the early options that might be taken by the Maryborough Football Netball Club in the wake of their email determining their future options from 2025 and beyond. With the club almost certain to leave the...
More information has emerged in regards to the early options that might be taken by the Maryborough Football Netball Club in the wake of their email determining their future options from 2025 and beyond.
With the club almost certain to leave the Bendigo Football Netball League (BFNL) at the end of the 2024 season, a variety of options have emerged for the club, with a move to the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League (MCDFNL) currently understood to be the preferred option for the club, should they continue to stand alone as a club.
However, other options that have been mooted, such as the Central Highlands Football Netball League, are off the table, according to president Scott Quinlan, with the club’s potential options, at this stage, leaning towards the MCDFNL or Loddon Valley Football Netball League.
Quinlan says there will be a wait for further information at this stage from AFL Victoria about what will happen with the club.
“There will be a board meeting on Monday night, which will be a standard board meeting, and I’ll share some further information from AFL Victoria. I am waiting on a couple of documents,” he said.
“It’s the hardest thing I have ever done. The number of hours you need to keep the options open for the club is painstaking, but if I don’t do it, we don’t have options, and to be fair to the club, the players and members, I need to put together as many options as I can, but it is around the legalities of what options are on the table and what processes are around those options.
“There isn’t a lot of clarity at the moment, which is why I’m waiting for AFL Victoria to give me the rulings and the processes on how we attempt to get into the MCDFNL or another league, if we were to look at that as well.”
Quinlan confirmed the Central Highlands will not be an option for the club, despite murmurings that the club may consider it to be a league of interest.
“The Central Highlands is not another option. I’ve spoken to AFL Goldfields and Jason Muldoon in regards to that,” he said.
“There are already 17 teams in that league, and he said it would not be the recommendation to get into the league.
“Geographically, he thinks it’s a silly idea. If we can’t fill players in Maryborough now, how do we fill players outside of Maryborough every second week.
“Loddon Valley is another option. The most business sense is MCDFNL, but my concern is that we are seen as a threat to the other district league clubs.
“I am trying to establish with the governing body, in AFL Victoria, if they have some jurisdiction over the board whether we can do an appeal and go in stand-alone.
“The Loddon Valley is an additional option. It is an alternate to the MCDFNL, that one.
“Heathcote District is too far, logistically, it won’t work.”
At the moment, the indication from club members is an overwhelming majority wanting to stand alone as a club, according to Quinlan.
“Based off the meeting we had last week, with 30 members from all the boards, I would say about 85-90 percent support a stand-alone club,” he said.
But Quinlan’s biggest concern is what would happen to their junior pathways in the Bendigo Junior Football League (BJFL), should they decide to go it alone in the MCDFNL.
“My biggest concern about it is that I have also spoken to the BJFL. Me being a coach, we have a strong pathway for blokes like Kaian Constable who has come through,” he said.
“If we do a stand-alone in the MCDFNL, we have an obligation to fill out 14.5s and 17.5s in the MCDFNL, and that would mean we wouldn’t be in the BJFL, which would be disastrous in my view. If we merged, the BJFL are happy to keep the Maryborough Magpies.”
Quinlan says the support from the BFNL has been excellent as they look to negotiate their options.
“I’ve spoken to Carol McKinstry and Cameron Tomlins, formally and informally. They will do anything. They will let us go with their blessing and will keep us with their blessing. They would prefer to keep us there, and the one thing that hasn’t been put out is that they are doing everything they can to keep us. They aren’t trying to push us out at all,” he said.
“The support the BFNL are showing, knowing the willingness to keep us is what they prefer, is great, but they’ll give us their full support if we have to leave.”
Quinlan offered up a potential timeline on events around the club coming up, with a priority on getting the reserves back out for a game against Castlemaine in two weeks time, while voting processes are in the works.
“I would hope from a timeline point of view, that our members are being presented with some options in the next seven to 10 days, and that they can at least vote on what they would prefer to happen in season 2025, but for 2024, we are playing in the BFNL,” he said.
“Netball is good, junior footy is good, junior netball is good, and we are trying to get a game of reserves footy against Castlemaine, which will be high-priority.
“It’s highly unlikely that we’ll field too many reserves teams for the rest of the year, however.”