Gulls struggle on… into the wind

By RUSSELL BENNETT

WARRAGUL Football Netball Club’s membership of the Gippsland League has lived to see another day.
Club members at a special general meeting last Wednesday evening voted on a proposal to switch to the Casey Cardinia league, with numbers just falling short of the 75 per cent required to make the move – and when we say “just falling short”, we mean just that.
The vote was 70 per cent to 30 – itself an emphatic sign that the members wanted a move and that not all was well in Gippsland.
The main reason just enough of Warragul’s members voted to stay in the Gippsland league – at least for now – was that Casey Cardinia’s junior age groups weren’t compatible.
“The Warragul and District junior league has 10s, 12s and 14s and those kids out of the 14s would have had to play 17s,” said Gulls president Vin Walkinshaw.
“That’s a big headache.”
It appears likely that Warragul would have also had to enter sides in the South East Juniors to help bridge the gap.
“If Casey Cardinia had under-16s, the vote would have been 100 per cent (in favour of the switch),” Walkinshaw said.
The Gazette understands that representatives from Drouin, Leongatha and Wonthaggi had a meeting with Warragul to discuss their respective futures in the Gippsland League.
“We cleared 38 players in the seniors and reserves (combined) this season,” Walkinshaw said.
“The Ellinbank league killed us.
“We (Warragul and Drouin) need help and we’ve made that very clear to the (Gippsland) league.”
Walkinshaw acknowledged the ‘travel factor’ was a huge concern for his side traveling all over Gippsland throughout the season but he also said that the club would have to double its current spending to be competitive again in the Gippsland League.
“There are more than half a dozen senior clubs drawing from our town, which has a population of around 14,000,” he said.
“Country footy is in a bad way.
“Clubs are willing to pay over $1000 (per week) for a player.
“They’re football prostitutes.”
Walkinshaw said all his side could do was “go back to square one” and focus on its junior development.
“Just last year we were three players shy of making the finals,” he said.
“Sale said we were the most physical side they played against.”
Walkinshaw said a move to Casey would have brought some ex-Gulls back to the club to play but, in his opinion, he’d like to see the likes of Leongatha, Drouin, Warragul, Wonthaggi, Garfield, Nar Nar Goon and Pakenham enter into a kind of re-formed South West Gippsland competition.
“But it’s not just Gippsland or Warragul that’s the issue,” he said.
“It’s country footy in general.”
The member vote at the Gulls’ special general meeting came just days after the club announced former Narre Warren champion Stephen Kidd as its new senior coach. He played a club record 269 senior games with the Magpies and was appointed captain at just 19. Kidd went on to play in three flags for Narre and spent an extended period as an assistant coach.
He replaces Ashley Green at the Gulls, with the former Brisbane AFL player taking on the senior coaching role at the Warragul Industrials in the Ellinbank league.