Tara Murray
Melton South members have voted in favour of the club making the move to the Riddell District Football Netball League for next season.
The Ballarat Football Netball League club held a special general meeting on Wednesday night to discuss the future of the club.
President Matthew Collins said the members made it clear that they wanted to move to the RDFNL for next year.
“It’s not about winning flags, it’s about being competitive,” he said. “We haven’t won a lot of [football] games in the last 10 to 12 years.
“The vote was unanimous. It was 100-plus to one. The club needs this and we hope Riddell accepts us.
“The clubs have to vote on it.”
Collins said after some members came to them about the future of the club about two months ago and they then put together a sub-committee to look at the benefits of the Riddell, Ballarat and Western leagues.
He said that the committee came to the decision that the RDFNL was the best league for the club.
Collins said netball not being on the same day as football was one of the main reasons why the WFNL wasn’t seen as an option.
“It didn’t match with us,” he said. “We lose one team [in Riddell], E-grade.
“A lot of girls are playing two games to fill the teams so we shouldn’t lose too many players.”
The senior club previously played in the RDFNL before moving to the BFNL in 1997.
The club’s juniors are still in the Riddell league.
“It’s a good alignment for the club being in the same league,” Collins said.” In the Ballarat league we’re playing clubs with some having 20 junior sides.
“We have four or five. With the points system you need to have plenty of juniors coming through.
“Most of the clubs in Riddell have five or six which makes it a bit better.”
Having not won a senior football game in the past two seasons, Collins said they were under no illusions that they’re not going to come in and win a premiership straight away if the move to the RDFNL is successful.
The Panthers face Sebastopol in the final round of the BFNL season.
The Panthers will have at least five netball teams, if not all six play finals.
