Sport
20 August, 2024
Maryborough FNC updates past players and members on their options for 2025 season
The Maryborough Football Netball Club are determined to fight on right until the very end, but are calling on all arms to help support the club.
On an emotional Saturday afternoon at Barker Oval Princes Park, the Magpies, who are currently jostling with the possibility of the 2024 season being their last in an illustrious 152-year existence, gave one of their best performances of the year on the football field against Eaglehawk, while also shoring up their A reserve finals chances with a strong win.
With the club holding a family day, coupled with a past players day which saw multiple Magpie heroes return to the scene which helped them secure premierships in yesteryear, there were many activations held during and after the senior game.
Many Magpie legends donned the famous black and white for one more time as the club held two adults versus kids games in the morning, while a packed out social rooms after the game saw multiple presentations.
Magpie legend Shane McCluskey interviewed mutliple heroes from yesteryear after the game, while the game balls from Saturday were presented to games record holders Cam Skinner and Alicia Cassidy.
Tears and cheers greeted the club at the final siren, with all spectators, as well as Eaglehawk players, gathering on the grandstand wing, with vice-president Daryl Groves speaking about the impact the season has had on them, with all singing the club song at the end of the day.
Of most importance was the scenes prior to the game, where Groves, as well as president Scott Quinlan, kept members and past players informed of the club’s status at their pre-game function.
Groves spoke in detail about the club’s plight this season.
“Earlier in the year, the club made the decision to notify the Bendigo Football Netball League (BFNL) that we felt we were uncompetitive, and that we would look at alternatives around what we do as a club and where we play,” he said.
“We sent an application of interest to the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League (MCDFNL) and the Central Highlands Football League (CHFL).
“It’s been well-reported that both of those leagues have declined to accept us into their competition.
“In conjunction with that activity, the intention was always to give our members the opportunity to come together at a general meeting and vote on what the club does, but to do that, we had to get some solidity about the options that were available to us.
“One of those options was to investigate a merger.”
It was here that Groves revealed that the club had not only participated in talks with the Maryborough Giants, but an approach was also made to Castlemaine and an unnamed MCDFNL club.
“We spoke to Castlemaine earlier in the year, being a BFNL club and having similar type-issues to us, we thought there were some synergies there, but their headspace was not in a merge area at that moment,” he said.
“We also contacted them later in the year, a few weeks ago, and they reaffirmed that right now, a merger is not on the table for them.
“The obvious merge partner for us is the Maryborough Giants. That has not come to anything that is close to solid at this stage.
“Right now, the ball is in their court, and they haven’t canned discussions, but it is fair to say there hasn’t been a lot of urgency coming back from them at this point in time, so we don’t have a merge option with which to vote upon, we don’t have enough foundation or enough common ground with the Giants at the moment to bring something to the members with any finality.
“We did reach out to another district league club in terms of a merger, but there’s no support. In other words, nobody wants to merge with us at the moment.”
Groves revealed that the club investigated every option to try and force their way into the MCDFNL, including seeking intervention from the AFL.
“There was an overwhelming vote of no in the MCDFNL, but there were clubs in the league that were supportive of our application and empathy, but the resounding vote was a no for us to join,” he said.
“We took that and contacted the AFL to seek intervention in that process. When we applied, the AFL made it clear to us that there was no right of appeal, under the MCDFNL constitution, after the vote and the way that it panned out, with the discussions of our executive meeting with their executive.
“We gave several presentations, answered all their questions, and the vote still came back with no.
“We actually took the matter all the way to the directors of the AFL, and they have been unable and reluctant to intervene in the process.
“Right now, the district league is a dead option — whether that changes in the future is yet to be seen, but it’s not an option on the table at the moment.”
Groves spoke about the realistic options that are approaching the club as the end of the 2024 season dawns on them.
“So, what are our options? Well, yes, we can merge; but we’re not there yet, and we are coming up to the end of the season; and the other option is, the least desirable, the club going into recess,” he said.
“What that means in real terms is that we notify the BFNL of our intention not to field senior football and senior netball next year, if we felt that we couldn’t be competitive, and couldn’t field reserves.
“We are also currently short a team in netball, and this year, the club made the decision to bring our top level of netball from A grade to A reserve, which has been a winning move as we’ve been competitive in that competition, and the girls will play finals at that level.”
Groves outlined that while the club could still be in the BFNL, they would need plenty to change to prevent going into recess.
“Right now, the club is being run by a very small, dedicated group of people, who are doing their utmost to keep them in supply, and the club needs help,” he said.
“It needs a group of realistically, eight to 12 past players to come together and come forward as a group, be organised, prepared, ready to invest your time for the club to have any semblance of a chance to compete next year.
“If that doesn’t happen, and we don’t find 30 players, we won’t be able to compete in the BFNL next year.
“We can’t sustain another year that we’ve had.
“If there are people in the room, sitting there and thinking you have the capacity to assist and pull together a group of dedicated people who are prepared to have a real serious crack at keeping the club alive, I would implore you to do that, and do it very, very quickly.
“We are at the tail end of our season, and our players are being approached by other clubs in other leagues.
“There is still breath in the lungs, but it needs to happen very quickly.
“Even though senior football is at a crisis point, there are other elements at the club that are doing quite well.
“The club will still function, as we have netballers in finals, with our A reserve sitting in the top five, and our under 17 netballers similar, and we have heaps of juniors participating in the finals this year as well.
“It’s been an emotional, difficult year for everyone involved. You’ll see the strain on people’s faces.”
Quinlan reaffirmed that there has been a great level of support from the BFNL, who are also juggling the prospect of trying to return the league to a 10-team competition in 2025, with Broadford expected to join the league next season from the AFL Outer East competition.
“I can say categorically, there has been overwhelming support from the BFNL for Maryborough to remain in the league moving forward,” he said.
“I’ve met with the board three or four times over the last month, and had multiple phone calls.
“They are supportive of what they can do, with a whole host of exemptions, where they have been pretty accommodating, especially with the special permit from other clubs to come and top up our senior sides.
“They have put on the table that they can support in many ways, but one thing they can’t do is provide players or help us with recruitment. Player points and salary caps and clearances, whatever it may be, there’s overwhelming support.
“The league are imminent in making a decision to include another team in the BFNL in the next six to eight weeks, which would make it an even number. If we were to drop out, it would revert to an odd number.
“The league are keen and willing to bend whatever rules they can, but it’s over to us from this point on with where we go.”
To that end, Groves says a decision should be expected in the next few weeks, leading up to the club’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in November.
“The club will be making some decisions over the next few weeks in terms of where the future lies,” he said.
“There will be an AGM held in November, where, if there is no further advance for the Giants, we have the slim possibility of staying in the Bendigo league, and the option of going into recess. All of those options will be discussed in detail.
“There is a little bit of a misnomer about the formal structure of the club. The juniors are not a separate club, as some people think they are.
“Everybody exists under the one corporate banner, being the Maryborough Football Netball Club Incorporated.
“If we go into a recess, if that is the option that is available to us, and that call is made, the Bendigo league would need to approve that for us to go into recess, they would grant us a one-year recess, and the indications are that they would accept that if it was the decision of the club, but the juniors can still participate, and can still wear club colours, and would still be the Maryborough Football Netball Club.
“They would affiliate with the Bendigo Junior Football League and would carry on, so the club exists and would continue to exist if that were the case, and it gives the club 12 months to regroup.
“But, if we choose to reform and field teams, we would have to go back into the Bendigo Football Netball League.
“We don’t have that option unless we apply somewhere else and they accept us, but that is unlikely.”
For now, however, the club will now focus on their final game of the home-and-away campaign, when they travel to Tannery Lane to take on Strathfieldsaye.