By RUSSELL BENNETT
IT SEEMS everything old is new again, with the Ellinbank and District Football League abandoning its much maligned two-division structure after just one season of the format.
The league’s board of management has opted to revert to a single division, 15-team structure as opposed to the seven-team West and eight-team East of this year.
The Gazette understands the 15-team structure is a way of safeguarding the league in case it can’t attract new clubs in the immediate future, and – in fact – loses others to neighbouring leagues.
“We needed one team to fill the bye in the West and ideally we wanted three teams in three years to make it a workable league,” said Ellinbank and District Football League (EDFL) manager and secretary Ken Moore of the two-division system.
“If we weren’t going to get that, and we didn’t think we could, then we’d just be persevering. We just felt at the moment that it’d be a Band-Aid measure.
“The problem is that – and this is what we learnt from this year’s experiences – if teams drop out you have all sorts of issues with the whole fixture.
“We were worried that if a team dropped out of any division it just wouldn’t be workable running a six or seven team division and it wouldn’t be a good look for the brand.”
A key difference in the 15-team structure moving forward, though, is that there will be a final eight – instead of the six-team finals series seen in the past. Moore said the league was looking at a seeded draw also, acknowledging that struggling clubs such as Poowong and Nyora were adversely affected this year by having to play the top sides three times.
Another major reason for the decision to go back to one 15-team competition was the league’s junior make-up.
“Five teams in juniors this year did not take to the field and that just ruined the draw at junior level. There were far too many byes,” Moore said.
“When you’ve got a seven-team competition that already has a bye in it and then you have teams not fielding sides you’ve got a situation where some clubs would go three or four weeks without playing a game, which is just not satisfactory.”
Moore said the league’s research showed the two-division structure did little to lessen the blowout winning margins seen in recent years, either.
“We thought that in the best interests of the juniors we wanted them playing against the best teams on a more regular basis,” he said.
“Our research said that a one-division league ensured a competitive game for the top teams at least every two weeks and for the bottom teams it ensured they had a chance of victory at least once in three weeks.
“With the current competition we couldn’t guarantee that. The new form isn’t ideal, but it’s an improvement.”
The league will field under-16 and under-18 junior competitions in 2015, in addition to the reserves and seniors.
Moore said the league wouldn’t rule out returning to a two-division set-up in the future – potentially even a promotion-relegation system – but added: “What we didn’t want was for the second division to be a poorer standard that was far inferior to the first. We didn’t want to isolate all the poorly performed teams in one division because we wouldn’t be doing them a favour. If all the poorer sides played against each other it masks over their deficiencies. But if you put them all in the one competition, they’re forced to lift their game both on field and off.”
Under the re-formed 15-team competition, it will be mandatory for clubs to field all four sides – under-16s, under-18s, reserves and seniors.
The league is currently looking at a range of equalisation measures to bridge the gap between the stronger west and the weaker east. They will likely include a revamped player points system and a heads of agreement to be signed by all clubs.
