The BFNL’s scheduled clash with West Gippsland Latrobe will now be a twilight fixture, after the BFNL was allocated an under-18 carnival and another senior inter-league match between Bellarine and the Murray leagues.

The under-18 carnival will be played in the morning and will feature Bendigo, Bellarine and Murray.

Bellarine and Murray will then face-off, before Bendigo and West Gippsland meet at 5.30pm.

Central Victorian Football chief executive Steven Oliver said the carnival had the potential to be a resounding success.

“With the Heathcote and Loddon Valley leagues both involved in inter-league footy that day as well, there are no normal rounds of footy on in the Bendigo area,’’ Oliver said.

“Twilight games have worked really well for us, so we think a twilight inter-league game can draw a good crowd. The Murray and Bellarine are very competitive country leagues and the under-18 games should be exciting as well.”

The Victorian Country Football League has cut some of its inter-league funding which directly affected paying for under-18 sides to play inter-league footy.

“West Gippsland was under no obligation to bring its under-18 team up here, but we were very keen to have our under-18 boys play inter-league.

“Murray and Bellarine indicated they’d like to play their under-18s, so from that we’ll have an under-18 round-robin of three matches played over 25 minute halves.’’

Jeff Brennan, who led the BFNL to a shock win over Ballarat last year, and Ben Dyett have been reappointed as the senior and under-18 coaches respectively.

Oliver and the two coaches will meet this week to discuss squad selection and training programs.

“We plan to meet with the BFNL club coaches to talk about who would benefit from inter-league selection and who deserves inter-league selection,’’ Oliver said.

“We certainly won’t just pick a squad based on big name players.’’