After a player exodus left the club without a senior football team in the Bendigo Football-Netball League, it was announced that Kyneton could field reserves and under-18s teams this season.

Kyneton now has 36 reserves players signed and five more awaiting clearances, plus 22 under-18s.

It’s a good start towards fielding a senior side next year, says Kyneton president Cello Matricadi, who will return to pull on the boots for the Tigers’ reserves after being cleared from Trentham.

“It’s fantastic for us, we’re looking at good numbers. Some of them are a week-on, week-off proposition, but we’ve got a solid base to work from,” Matricadi said yesterday.

“We’ve got guys who have come to the club who want to help out and actually play, which is fantastic – we’re not going to knock them back.”

Since it was announced that Kyneton wouldn’t have a senior team, only Tyler Greetham and Patrick Rowe have left.

“There’s only two that were senior players that have moved on, everyone else has stayed,” Matricadi said.

“We can’t offer them senior competition and we totally understand if they want to compete at a senior level.  We’ve wished them the best and we’ve told them we want them back.”

Kyneton’s committee has been working overtime in the past few months and Matricadi welcomed the support of a steering committee.

The BFNL board, Kyneton and a group of local businesses and supporters will work together to rebuild the club.

“It’s going to be good having the steering committee because that will take the pressure of the current committee to develop the plans and put all the processes in place for next year and beyond,” Matricadi said. 

“We can concentrate on the now and work with the steering committee to develop plans for the future.”

Meanwhile, Kyneton and the Bendigo Gold hope to mutually benefit from a practice match against Aberfeldie at the Kyneton Showgrounds on March 23.

The Gold will play Aberfeldie’s seniors, while Kyneton’s reserves and under-18s teams will also get a game against the Essendon District Football League club.

“We hope it’s going to be a big day and it’ll be good to get some footy on the pages again, some good stuff,” Matricadi said.

The Gold will play from 2pm, following the reserves at noon and under-18s at 10am.