By Jonty Ralphsmith
Southern Football Netball League Chief Executive Lee Hartman has said he would welcome conversations with Casey and Cardinia-based football netball clubs keen on joining the SFNL.
Hartman said the South East is an area the league would be happy to tap into in the future, after Cranbourne and Doveton Doves each joined the league ahead of 2022, following the discontinuation of the South East Football Netball League.
That followed Hampton Park’s arrival five years ago.
“Yeah for sure,” Hartman said when asked if he would be open to adding more teams in the future.
“That is part of our growth, it will come from the City of Casey.
“There’s opportunities for existing clubs and new clubs that will pop up in the next five-to-ten years in some of those growth corridors.
“We’re definitely open to the new clubs and continuing to grow our competition, I think now the City of Casey is part of the Urban Sprawl so it’s a good opportunity for those clubs to play Metro footy if they wish to do so.”
A primary prohibiting factor of adding more clubs is the distance players and volunteers need to travel, however that is offset by roads connecting the South East to metropolitan Melbourne.
Given the Eagles and Doves each made the grand final in their respective divisions, they have lifted the competitiveness of the league and thus been embraced by other clubs.
“Cranbourne and Doveton fitted in seamlessly,” Hartman said.
“They are very professional clubs, they came to us with the notion of being professional and they have lived up to that. Their administrators and volunteers are first class.
“The other clubs have accepted them very well so it has been a seamless transition.
“Speaking to them both just recently, they have enjoyed their experience, both have loved being involved and even socialising with other Southern clubs, they fit in really well.”
“They’re not looking back, they’re looking forward to build on it further.”
Despite his optimism, Hartman revealed there had been no conversations with any clubs about joining.
Speaking pragmatically, Hartman also poured cold water on the prospect of old rivalries in the South East rekindling en masse, given they would likely enter different divisions.
“If it got to that point where those teams were all playing with us, those local rivalries, we’d definitely look at that but at the end of the day, club sustainability all comes down to competitiveness,” he said.
The league has seen more movement between divisions entering 2023 than previous years, with two clubs moving between division four and division three, and division three and division two.
It has the competition in a healthy spot.
“Everyone has ambitions to play as high as they possibly can,” the Chief Executive said.
“Everyone wants to win premierships and go up, but we have put clubs up without winning premierships – from our point of view it is just about competitiveness.
“The higher level they play, the more opportunity to raise revenue and recruit players so it just works well the way we’ve got it. As new clubs join the league, we have the opportunity to reshuffle as need be.
“I think this is the most even it has ever been since we introduced the fourth division.
“This year will be very competitive from top to bottom.”
An issue facing the league ahead of 2023 is a boundary umpire shortage, with the thirds competition adopting a last-touch out-of-bounds rule to offset that.
Hartman, however, was confident that would not bleed into a shortage at higher level and that the numbers of field and goal umpires remained sufficient.
Another focus of the league is ensuring the sustainability of clubs and keeping the pathway blossoming given the league does not have a junior competition.
Hartman also said he’d observed greater volunteer turnover in recent years and was confident all clubs had recovered from the difficulties brought about by the pandemic.
