PLEASE BRING ON THE OPENING ROUND OF THE PARKLEA 2021 SEASON
Hi to everyone. Hope you are all safe and well. I’ve never been so excited for a season to start.
It was extremely disappointing to miss an entire season in 2020. Not good for anyone or any organisation but agree community health was more important than our football league. It appears for this year if not longer we will have to follow the AFL Vic ‘return to training and games protocols’. Hope these impositions are not too difficult for clubs and the league to implement. I’m optimistic common sense will prevail sooner rather than later and the 1000 spectator cap rule will be changed to something like 3000 people.
The big news in the off season is that the Ellinbank & District Football League is pleased to announce the Trafalgar Football Netball club will join our league for the 2021 season.
The EDFL Board of Management feel Trafalgar’s presence will help underwrite the future of the competition. It has proven to be a strong, successful and financial club in the Mid Gippsland FNL over many years. Hence we now have an 11 team league and this has necessitated a 20 round season with two byes for every club to enable all clubs to play nine home and away matches with our grand final pushed back one week this year – to 18 September.
Also the EDFL sought a vote of all member clubs to move to U/16.5 & U18.5 Age levels for 2021. It was passed by the majority of clubs and approved by AFL Gippsland. Hope this provides clubs with some extra numbers and gives a few kids who missed out last year the chance to play their final underage season. Once again to compensate for the teams that cannot field at junior level we intend to produce a ‘make up game timetable’.
While Longwarry won the senior flag in 2019 I know it will face strong competition again from last year’s runners up Ellinbank while Poowong have many admirers. Be great if some non-finalists from 2019 can rise up and mark their mark on the competition. Time will tell.
This season the EDFL will not field a senior Interleague team due to the 20 round home and away season but we have still not heard whether AFL Vic Country will roll out the Worksafe Country Championships. We will field U16 &18 teams at the Gumbuya World Gippsland Junior Carnival proposed for 30 June. We have also asked AFL Gippsland if they can tee up a ‘4 quarter match’ for our junior interleague sides prior to the championship against another Gippsland league.
I wish Lang Lang all the best when they showcase their new ground at Caldermeade Road against Poowong on Easter Friday. This match has been brought forward from round 10. Tigers President Chris Brew has done an outstanding job with the permit process to meet the Covid restrictions and hope all goes smoothly and a big crowd is in attendance.
With regards to the AFL Victoria regulations once again our league has a team salary cap. This year it has been reduced from $80k to $65k similar if not the same as all district leagues and a Player Point System (PPS) is again in operation.
Also plans are underway for a merger with EDNA. All going well we will be a football-netball league before the year is out. Finally I would like to wish all clubs, officials, volunteers, and supporters, EDNA, the GUA and all our league sponsors all the best for a successful 2021.
Last Modified on 30/03/2021 23:45
