One Central Highlands league club has floated the idea of entering a second senior football team to help get a season up and running in 2020.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As the Ballarat league abandoned its senior grades on Thursday, the Central Highlands' senior football competition remained on a knife's edge with a decision expected as soon as today.
The club, which wished not to be named, has made a serious approach to the CHFL board about fielding two sides.
With a reserves competition now canned, a spokesperson from that club pointed at strong numbers, the desire to give as many people as possible a game of football and mental health benefits as reasons behind pushing for a second senior team. They also felt it might give the league enough confirmed sides to create a competition.
"We realise that fielding a second team will require a lot of work but we are prepared to do the extra work to try enable a season," the spokesperson said.
"The benefits of playing a limited season outweigh not playing."
The CHFL board has asked for club feedback until the close of business today and will then set about making a decision on whether or not a season will be played this year. It's understood a draft senior fixture has been worked on in the event enough teams commit to warrant it going ahead.
League manager Diane Ryan said the reserves football division had been scrapped, but was very optimistic about junior grades going ahead in some form.
"Clubs will be advised on Friday evening whether a senior competition is going to go ahead and then we'll just confirm all the junior teams to them as well, so they know who's going ahead and who is not," Ryan said.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Clunes and Carngham-Linton publicly withdrew teams from the season on Wednesday, while Beaufort confirmed it had pulled out its entire club from the year on Thursday night. Many others are believed to not be keen on playing.
The Central Highlands Netball League, which operates its own administration, is also seeking feedback from clubs before making a call on its future this year.