Riddell District Football Netball League will host the Nepean Football Netball League in the AFL Victoria Country Championships on May 23.
The match-up is a win for the RDFNL, with the Nepean league ranked 14th in the state, 14 places higher than the RDNFL.
The RDFNL was due to play Tallangatta FNL on the weekend of May 23, but they pulled out of the competition to play in a localised representative carnival in the Murray/Riverina area.
Nepean FNL was meant to play the Mallee FNL.
In another bonus for the RDFNL, it will host the country championship game for a second successive year, this time to be played at Macedon’s Tony Clarke Oval.
Last year the footballers went down by one point to Alberton Football Netball League.
RDFNL operations manager Toby Boyle is excited about the challenge of taking on a league ranked much higher than the RDFNL.
“With Tallangatta FNL withdrawing [from the championships], we were facing the real possibility of not having senior interleague this year, so to be scheduled to play Nepean FNL is a great boost for the league”, Boyle said.
“Taking on a league ranked in the top 15 will give us a good indication of where our league sits amongst other AFL Victoria Country leagues, and we’re looking forward to the challenge”.
The RDFNL’s current ranking of 28 is protected regardless of the result of the game against the Nepean FNL, meaning that a loss won’t drop the RDFNL further down the rankings.
As well as fielding senior football sides, the two leagues are hoping to have an under-18 football match, along with open and under-17 netball games.
