THE battle for the Championship in next year’s GRFC Men’s Division One competition is set to become all the more ferocious with the announcement that the newly crowned champion will qualify to represent the GRFC at Geelong’s annual Pre-Season Cup competition.

The sweetener for Division One clubs was announced at last Monday week’s GRFC 2016 competitions’ structure meeting, held at the Association’s headquarters at Howard Glover Reserve.

The prestigious tournament, originally known as the Geelong Advertiser Cup and last year known as the City of Greater Geelong Diversity Cup, is the longest continuously running football cup competition in rural Victoria, having first seen the light of day in 1981.

The 2016 edition will be hosted by the Bell Park Sports Club and will feature 2015 Men’s Division One Runners up, Surfside Waves, who accepted the offer after reigning champions Rangers declined to participate. The decision was understandable as Rangers already fields its State League squad in the Cup.

Other notable items to have come out of the GRFC meeting include the proposed inclusion of a second Women’s division next year, while the Girls’ Junior competition will feature an Under 14s and U16s league.

The inaugural Men’s Masters (Over 35s) competition will also be launched in 2016, while the Men’s Division One competition is expected to expand from a seven team competition to an eight – and possibly ten – team league.

The rapidly expanding Boys’ Junior competitions has led to the proposed creation of an ‘A’ and ‘B’ Division for each of the U12s, U13s, U15s and U17s leagues – pending sufficient team entries.

Finally, with the game’s growth most evident at Mini Roos (U11s and under) level, stand-alone Boys and Girls Under 11 competitions will be formed and held outside of the Mini-Roos Hubs, with the aim of relieving some of the logistical pressures on the two Hubs.