By Nick Creely
Cranbourne’s quest to join the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League has been dealt a major blow, with the MPNFL clubs rejecting the Eagles’ application to join the competition in 2019.
At a Special General Meeting held at Frankston Park on Wednesday 29 August, the clubs rejected the application for one of the region’s most powerful clubs to join the competition.
The Eagles required a 75 per cent vote from the 22 clubs, or a 17-5 vote, to be successful, but fell short.
The Gazette understands that the Eagles got the support of around half of the member clubs.
Under AFL Victoria Rules, the club had seven days from the initial decision to lodge an appeal with AFL South East Region Commission, with any appeal to be heard by an independent panel.
Cranbourne president Gerry Kelly confirmed to the Gazette that the club has appealed the decision, and hopes to have a resolution soon.
“We’ve appealed – we haven’t got a date yet for an appeal hearing, but hopefully it’s sometime soon,” he said.
Kelly said that the club has plenty of support from clubs in the MPNFL, who can see their vision of being part of the competition in 2019 and into the future.
“I wasn’t surprised (by the result) – I was there before the vote happened, and I was really happy with the amount of support in the room, so there’s a lot of people that support us, but some people that don’t,” he said.
“We’ve made the decision (to appeal) based on the support we had in the room – if we didn’t have any support, you wouldn’t be appealing.
“We were buoyed by the fact that so many people did support us.”
Kelly said the Eagles’ history in the Mornington Peninsula is rich, and is adamant that their future lies within that region, and not with the newly formed ‘AFL Outer East’, which will be the new home of six current SEFNL clubs.
We’ve got history with the MPNFL – we played Mornington back in 1890, and we’ve got four Cranbourne representatives in the Mornington Peninsula Team of the Century. Josh Kendall is a Cranbourne boy, Darryl Nisbet is a famous Cranbourne coach, Brutus Dalgleish and Patty Garrett as well,” he said.
“That just proves where we belong, well from my view anyway.”
Kelly said that his club would be logically placed into “Division One” next season, but is willing to accommodate the MPNFL clubs if need be.
“We’ve said all along that if the clubs wanted us to go into the second division, we would,” he said.”
“But it just seems logical to go to first division.”
Ensuring they lock down their long term future is of paramount importance with just two weeks left to go in the football season, and Kelly said they are hopeful of the right outcome sooner rather than later.
“You’d certainly like a decision in before the season finishes,” he said.
“We see ourselves being part of the Mornington Peninsula for the next 50 or 100 years, it’s a long term decision that we’ve made.
“We are right on the doorstep (of the Mornington Peninsula) – I believe it’s further to Edi-Asp from Sorrento than it is to Cranbourne, so we’ll see.”
The decision by the MPNFL clubs has been met with disappointment from the SEFNL, with chairman Ryan Ford of the firm belief that the club has the right to be in the competition from next year and beyond.
“The entire situation has become nonsensical and I feel heavily for Cranbourne who validate all legitimate reason to be part of the MPNFL,” he said.
“Cranbourne has a history dating back to 1889 and first played against clubs such as Mornington and Frankston.
Sadly, in overlooking the good of community sport a small group of individuals with recalcitrant attitudes in that region are in the way of growing and nurturing our great game.
“The SEFNL board will continue to support the Cranbourne Football and Netball Club in its quest for a home in 2019.”
