OPINION:
JUNIOR football is clearly at a crossroads in Sunraysia.
Proud club Merbein this week made a tough call to pull a team in the SFNL Under 18 competition, due to a lack of numbers.
It comes after Ouyen United failed to have enough players to field teams in the 18s and 16s this year.
While playing numbers in the Under 14s are strong, there are some struggles across other age divisions for clubs.
The likes of Mildura and Wentworth are an exception to this rule. They have no shortage of juniors.
There’s no easy fix, but the cashed-up SFNL should have had a post-pandemic plan by now to help reduce the financial impost of parents signing up their kids to play footy.
That aside, there is a glaring option that has failed to get the green light – and that’s introducing an Under 10 football team and Under 11 netball side from Gol Gol, one of the fastest growing areas in Sunraysia.
Credit to the league for previously backing the Hawks’ proposal, but it was knocked back by the member clubs in 2021 and 2022.
It pains Hawks president Paul Mensch when he sees local footy struggling, because his club’s proposal is “all about building the game”.
“In allowing us to start at Under 10s and build another club, you’re actually building another avenue for kids to take up the sport and hopefully progress to those higher grades,” he said.
“We’re not looking at starting with Under 16s and 18s and taking kids away from other clubs. We’re talking about building from kids in Auskick and NetSetGo.
“We want to offer our kids and parents an opportunity to grow with our club.”
Mensch said the soaring population growth in Gol Gol and Buronga should be recognised by the SFNL clubs.
“The population in our area is about 2500, and there’s 900 blocks of land currently for sale,” he said.
“With that sort of growth, we will have a bigger population than Ouyen, Merbein, probably Wentworth and Dareton combined, and who knows what the population of Robinvale is,” he added with a laugh.
“As part of our proposal, the teams would play at wherever Gol Gol was playing so there was no impost on volunteers. All parents would have to do is get their kids to the ground.”
Asked if his club would consider putting in another application for admission to the SFNL junior competition, Mensch said: “I’ve been encouraged to resubmit, but how many times are you going to be slapped in the face?
“In the meantime, we’ve lost two years of potentially developing more kids in the game.”
Ricky Rowe, the president of neighbouring footy club Wentworth, puts the latest junior blows to Merbein and Ouyen down to a “cycle” of player turnover.
“At some point, every club will go through it (a shortage of juniors),” he said.
“It wasn’t long ago when didn’t field an 18s team for two years.
“That’s why your most important teams at a club are your Under 10 footballers and Under 11 netballers.
“These kids are the future of all clubs.”
MYSTERY MAN MISSES SCREAMER
THIS photo by Greg Sylvia that appeared on the back page of last Saturday’s Sunraysia Daily didn’t just catch our eye for Ben Hurley’s screamer.
Did you notice the white-capped man sitting on a bench as Hurley was up, up and away?
He missed the magic mark, but what was he doing at the time?
A crossword puzzle, Sudoku, writing a love letter or keeping stats from the game?
If you know this man, ask him if he’d mind getting in touch with me at mtaylor@sunraysiadaily.com.au.
Myself and a number of our curious readers want to know what he was doing at the time this photo was taken.
