By DAVID NAGEL AND RUSSELL BENNETT
JUST four years after a major restructure of the AFL Victoria Country Championship, representative football is set for a new twist with city and country leagues set to collide.
The instigator has been the Victorian Amateur Football Association’s (VAFA) decision to pull the pin on representative football in 2016, meaning the five remaining metropolitan leagues – Eastern, Essendon, Northern, Southern and Western – will join the country lads with the introduction of the WorkSafe AFL Victoria Community Championship.
For the first time, metropolitan and country leagues will battle it out for the ultimate bragging rights to be crowned the best community football league in Victoria.
A total of 38 leagues will compete in a one off head-to-head match, which will be held on the weekend of May 21-22 at 19 venues across Victoria, with a further six leagues competing in their own matches across the same weekend.
In the initial year of the Championships, leagues have been fixtured against each other in a manner which will assist in the official ranking of leagues for 2017 and beyond.
The Southern Football League (SFL) will now host the Ellinbank and District Football League (EDFL), whereas under the AFL Victoria Country Championship the EDFL was set to host Horsham.
EDFL manager Ken Moore said he had no issues with the change.
“I’ve got no qualms about it,” he said.
“It’ll present a real challenge.”
He said some of the sides in Division 1 of the SFL – which includes the likes of Clayton, Chelsea Heights, and East Brighton – were “quite strong”.
“They’ve got three divisions to draw on, so they’ll have a strong line-up and they’ll take a power of beating,” he said.
Moore said EDFL players with ties to the SFL could enjoy the prospect of playing against them.
There were a number of players familiar with many Gazette readers playing in Division 1 in 2015, such as the Scanlon boys – Nick, Dean and Stewart – and Chris Lee who all lined up for Clayton. Former Collingwood premiership star Shane Morwood, meanwhile, coached Dingley to the Division 1 premiership over Mordialloc.
Moore said there was the potential for the EDFL’s bylaws to be amended to entice more clubs’ players to put their hands up for interleague duty.
“If selected players don’t want to play then that’s fair enough but just tell us early,” he said.
Moore also said, at this stage, the EDFL was expecting Aussie Jones to continue in his role as interleague coach.
The opportunity to play senor representative football has been enjoyed by Victorian country leagues in the WorkSafe AFL Victoria Country Championship for many years, while metropolitan leagues have welcomed the return of representative football as part of the Metropolitan Championships since 2014.
AFL Victoria Community Football Operations Manager, Gerard Ryan said the combined competition promises to be one of the most exciting initiatives within community football.
“It is exciting to be able to take this next step towards the establishment of a Victoria wide senior community football championship involving a host of leagues from across the state, providing hundreds of players the opportunity to represent their league,” he said.
“The WorkSafe AFL Victoria Community Championships will provide a true championship model allowing a league to be recognised as the premier community football league in the state as well as the opportunity for metropolitan and country leagues to play against each other on a regular basis.”
2016 WorkSafe AFL Victoria Community Championships Fixture
Game, Leagues (Venue)
1 Geelong v Eastern (Geelong)
2 Peninsula v Northern (Peninsula)
3 Goulburn Valley v Essendon (Essendon)
4 Ballarat v Western (Western)
5 Ovens and Murray v Hampden (Hampden)
6 Bendigo v Gippsland (Gippsland)
7 Murray v South East (Murray)
8 Yarra Valley v Nepean (Yarra Valley)
9 Sunraysia v Wimmera (Sunraysia)
10 Heathcote v Bellarine (Bellarine)
11 North Central v Central Murray (Central Murray)
12 Central Highlands v Geelong District (Central Highlands)
13 Southern v Ellinbank and District (Southern)
14 Alberton v Riddell (Alberton)
15 Horsham v Maryborough Castlemaine (Maryborough)
16 Warrnambool v Loddon Valley (Warrnambool)
17 Mid Gippsland v Colac (Colac)
18 Kyabram v Golden Rivers (Kyabram)
19 Mininera v South West (Mininera)
