By Nick Creely
The West Gippsland Football Netball Competition and Ellinbank District Football Netball League are set to do battle in a mouth-watering Interleague battle in 2019, with AFL Victoria announcing the fixtures for the Community Championships on Tuesday morning.
The neighbouring competitions will do battle on 18 May for the ultimate bragging rights, in what is sure to draw a packed crowd and plenty of interest in the local region.
2019 will mark the fourth consecutive year of the WorkSafe AFL Victoria Community Championships, with 30 community football leagues opting-in to battle it out for some of the highest quality football Victoria has to offer.
The newly formed AFL Outer East – an amalgamation between AFL Yarra Ranges and South East Football Netball League – will do battle for the first time as a competition against the highly fancied Bendigo Football Netball League, with the new competition expected to be stocked full of talent.
15 matches will be held in all areas of the state in 2019, with the fixture seeing a host of community leagues taking on local rivals, and a number of league taking on new competitors.
The number-one ranked Eastern Football League has withdrawn from the 2019 Championships, with metropolitan Northern Football Netball League taking on country’s Geelong Football League for the number one ranking.
Stephen O’Donohue, the AFL Victoria Community Football & Development manager, said that the 2019 competition will once again be one of the highlights for grassroot footballers in Victoria.
“The 2019 WorkSafe AFL Victoria Community Championships promises to be another exciting event on the community football calendar,” he said.
“As per each season, all leagues have the ability to opt-in to participate in the competition, and as long as the desire to play representative football is still present, the opportunity to compete against the best senior players in community football will be available.”
All venues and timings for all games are yet to be finalised and will be announced in the new year.
Full 2019 Fixture:
Game 1 – Northern FNL v Geelong FNL at Geelong
Game 2 – Ovens & Murray FL v MPNFL at MPNFL
Game 3 – Goulburn Valley v Western Region FL at Western Region
Game 4 – Hampden FNL v Ballarat FNL at Ballarat
Game 5 – Outer East FNL v Bendigo FNL at Bendigo
Game 6 – Gippsland FNL v Central Murray FNL at Central Murray
Game 7 – Murray FL v Wimmera FL at Murray
Game 8 – Bellarine FNL v Geelong DFL at Bellarine
Game 9 – Sunraysia FL v Heathcote DFNL at Sunraysia
Game 10 – Southern FNL v Riddell DFL at Riddell
Game 11 – North Central FNL v CHFL at CHFL
Game 12 – West Gippsland FNC v Ellinbank DFNL at Ellinbank
Game 13 – MCDFNL v Colac DFNL at MCDFNL
Game 14 – Horsham DFL v Loddon Valley FL at Horsham
Game 15 – Kyabram DFNL v Golden Rivers FL at Kyabram
Local Derby Game – Tallangatta DFL v Hume FL
