Last week’s release of the Limestone Coast Regional Football Council’s report into the sustainability of the football and netball in the region has been the talk of the town.
The release itself declared if a catalyst for change occurs the best route forward for the significant winter sporting codes in the immediate future would be to introduce a new competition comprising of the six Western Border Football League and Netball Association sides with the addition of Kalangadoo and Penola.
The removal of the Magpies and Eagles from the respective Mid South Eastern and Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara Football and Netball competitions would only be a short-term solution before the entire Limestone Coast system is thrown upside down.
The longer-term option is to split the 25 current clubs into separate town and community competitions which was signalled by the council for its sustainable qualities.
But in the nine days since the final report was made public, every man, woman and their dog have had their say on what they believe is the best path forward.
Some believe the LCRFC has made the right call, others hope change comes, but in a different way, while another portion believes the status quo should remain.
With football and netball clubs being the lifeblood of the sporting community for decades, a lot of passion is thrown behind every opinion and none more so than the football league presidents.
The man in charge of the KNTFL Peter McLennan said he was hurt by the prospect of a historic club such as the Eagles flying south.
“We are disappointed they have recommended one of our foundation clubs should be taken out of our league which will make us weaker,” he said.
“You are never better off losing a good club from your league with so many great people.
“Penola has lots of meetings and we will back them to the hill if they go or stay with us.”
McLellan also had a strong view about how difficult it would be to conduct the town and community competitions with travel a major concern as three KNTFL teams face the prospect of the 200-plus kilometre journey to Port MacDonnell.
“Their long-term plan is not going to happen up our way,” he said.
“We wont be travelling that far, so it is not going to happen.”
However, McLellan said his greatest worry was the imbalance of junior numbers across the region.
“Juniors are the biggest concern because Penola can compete in the senior grades without a problem,” he said.
“But the juniors will get absolutely smashed because they have not got 18 17-year-olds to play.
“So I do not know how they are going to do that and there is a lot of work to be done.”
MSEFL president Peter Mitchell also came from a similar viewpoint believing change is not completely required and said he was “gob smacked” when he read the report for the first time.
“I was initially gob smacked when I read the report because the original reason we did this review was to look at a model for the future if there was a catalyst for change,” he said.
“But there did not appear to be a change that we are aware of.
“All of our clubs are happy to stay where they are with the competition and did not want to change from the current scenario.
“The only thing that has happened is the old Western Border league will be a lot stronger with eight teams, while both the Mid South Eastern and KNT leagues lose a team and we are not happy with that arrangement.”
Mitchell said the amount of juniors currently involved in the MSEFL could not compete with the level of kids in the Western Border system.
“The difference between Western Border and the Mid South Eastern is the number of juniors,” he said.
“South Gambier has something like 228 juniors, while Kalangadoo only has around 32 juniors.
“Kalangadoo did not win a game in Junior or Senior Colts, so you could imagine what happens if they played in the Western Border competition.”
The other concerning aspect for Mitchell was the thought of letting the Magpies go, a team that has won all-but five Mid South Eastern netball A Grade titles since 1988.
“What does not sit well with me is the fact Kalangadoo is a founding member of the Mid South Eastern Football association in 1936 and when we became a league in 1952,” he said.
“So they have been a member for 86 years with a pretty strong history of premierships and success on the field and off the field through Fred Basheer who was the club president for seven years and is Max Basheer’s brother.
“I have also always said if any of the Mid South Eastern clubs got in the same competition with the Mount Gambier clubs, they would find it very difficult for to recruit players because they do not want to travel as much.”
Like McLellan, Mitchell was also not completely on board with the town and community competition proposal.
“It would appear if (the Limestone Coast Regional Football Council) get their way, we will quickly move into the town and country model and I do not agree with classing Kalangadoo as a town,” he said.
“I think it is a small town with about 300 people, while Robe with a much bigger population base is in the country model.
“It will not be easy to compete with a town the size of Mount Gambier that has so much more resources and people.”
The historic meeting between all leagues and clubs in the Limestone Coast back in June was instigated by the WBFL and in the months since it has been the most outspoken for the need for change.
The WBFL was contacted by the SE Voice, but it declined to comment.
