With the way the 2018 fixture is set-up and neither Castlemaine or Maryborough having an under-18 team after late withdrawals, seven of the remaining eight competing clubs are all going to endure periods throughout the season where they don’t play for at least two consecutive weeks.

Apart from Eaglehawk, this year’s fixture features clubs playing Maryborough and Castlemaine in consecutive rounds, which therefore means extended breaks for teams throughout the season in the under-18s.

Strathfieldsaye has Maryborough and Castlemaine in its next two games, but in between is the general bye for inter-league on May 19.

Following last Saturday’s May 5 loss to Sandhurst, the Storm’s under-18s don’t play again until June 2 against Golden Square.

Kangaroo Flat’s under-18s are in the same position of enduring an elongated gap.

The Roos had the bye for the Maryborough game last Saturday, no game against Castlemaine this weekend and then follows the inter-league bye.

The Roos’ last game was a win over Sandhurst on April 28 – their next is against Golden Square on May 27.

Golden Square will also cop an extended break in the second half of the season, with the Bulldogs’ under-18s pair of byes in round 11 and 12 coming on either side of the general bye.

And what if Sandhurst finishes on top of the ladder to earn the first week of the finals off?

The Dragons are scheduled to have byes in round 17 and 18, meaning if they did finish on top of the ladder they would have four weeks between playing Eaglehawk on August 11 and the second semi-final on the weekend of September 8-9.

Given the stop-start nature of the under-18 competition that must be extremely frustrating for those players missing out on games, should a modification of the draw in the second half of the season be introduced to ensure competing clubs can play a game every round?

While it would obviously pose logistical problems and stretch club resources, is there merit in the BFNL fixturing the two clubs that have under-18 byes against each other?

For instance, in round 11 Eaglehawk and Golden Square both have byes.

Eaglehawk has a home game that round against Castlemaine, but the day could begin with a Hawks-Square under-18 match.

The logistical issues come with Golden Square being due to play at Maryborough that same day, but in terms of resources needed for the Square under-18s, for the sake of getting a game you’d like to think clubs would help others out with the likes of trainers, water carriers, interchange stewards and time-keepers and so forth to get a game on the park for their juniors, who are so important in today’s climate of the player points system.

The following round the Bulldogs would front up against South Bendigo, rather than having had to sit out consecutive games, then South would avoid two weeks without a game by meeting Kangaroo Flat next round and so on.

While introducing such a format would allow the competing clubs to all play nine games in the second half of the season, overall it would present some unevenness in terms of quality of opposition clubs play given both Kangaroo Flat and Gisborne for example would cop three-time reigning premier Strathfieldsaye three times over the course of the year.

Granted, an unequal fixture and having under-18 teams playing at a different venue to the rest of a club’s sides isn’t an ideal scenario.

But alongside the fact there are two clubs that don’t have enough numbers to fill teams, having under-18 players missing out on four of their 18 home and away games and those from the Storm, Roos and Square all having the best part of a month off between games during the year should be more of a concern.

The BFNL is also dealing with a similar situation in the A grade netball competition where neither Castlemaine or Kyneton have teams, meaning there’s also four byes for the remaining sides, but at least those breaks are more spread out and the impact isn’t as compounded as the under-18 scenario.

Possible added games to BFNL under-18s in second half of season:

Round 11 (June 30) – Eaglehawk v Golden Square – Eaglehawk at home; Golden Square at Maryborough.

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Round 12 (July 14) – South Bendigo v Golden Square – both clubs have home games.

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Round 13 (July 21) – Kangaroo Flat v South Bendigo – Kangaroo Flat at Maryborough; South Bendigo at Castlemaine.

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Round 14 (July 28) – Strathfieldsaye v Kangaroo Flat – both clubs have home games.

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Round 15 (August 4) – Strathfieldsaye v Gisborne – Gisborne at Maryborough; Strathfieldsaye at Castlemaine.

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Round 16 (August 11) – Kyneton v Gisborne – both clubs have home games.

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Round 17 (August 18) – Kyneton v Sandhurst – Sandhurst at Maryborough; Kyneton at Castlemaine.

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Round 18 (August 25) – Sandhurst v Eaglehawk – both clubs have home games.