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THE Bendigo Football-Netball League’s country-based clubs are seeking to level the playing field in what has become a competition dominated by its city counterparts.
The league’s four country clubs – Castlemaine, Gisborne, Kyneton and Maryborough – have met and begun discussions on ways in which they can improve their competitiveness.
Integral in creating the discussion among the country-based clubs is Karen O’Sullivan, who has just completed her first season as Kyneton president.
“With this being my first year as president, I’ve spent a lot of it watching and getting a feel for how things work in the league,” O’Sullivan said on Friday.
“Through going to presidents meetings, talking to a lot of people and listening to the issues that other clubs have – and I accept every club in the league has its own issues – the country clubs have unique issues and we’ve decided to get our heads together and have a discussion.
“So we’ve done that and looked at the issues we have individually, and issues that we share and how we can support each other, but also how we can take those issues to the league and do something concrete so there can be change.
“It has been long enough now where it’s either expected or accepted that the country clubs will end up towards the bottom of the ladder or with the wooden spoon.
“We think it’s time the league acknowledges there isn’t a level playing field and that there’s some genuine attempts to fix it.”
Among the issues discussed by the country clubs was the challenges faced by their smaller population base in comparison to the Bendigo-based clubs.
“Population is certainly a problem that the country clubs share,” O’Sullivan said.
It has been long enough now where it’s either expected or accepted that the country clubs will end up towards the bottom of the ladder or with the wooden spoon
- Karen O'Sullivan - Kyneton president
“Castlemaine and Maryborough have 7000 or 8000 as their population, Kyneton is about 9000 and Gisborne around 13,000, but the population of Bendigo is about 116,000, which divides up to an average of around 19,000 for those six clubs.
“It’s a massive population in Bendigo and a finite pool for the country clubs, which means we need to pay more to recruit players because we don’t have the pool of talent when we only have half the population of what the average for clubs in Bendigo is.
“There’s also the size of the pool for sponsorship that is minimised for country clubs because of the population size and demographics… we’re not in a massive city like Bendigo where there’s a lot of businesses.
“The country clubs all lose their younger players to larger metropolises for work and university opportunities, which is also an issue.
“We’re not suggesting ways in which this can be fixed right now. We think talking with the league and hearing about how having a more level playing field can be created by acknowledging there are problems is the best way forward.
“The country clubs are no different to the Bendigo clubs in wanting success on and off the field and it needs to be addressed so we can genuinely feel we can compete on and off the field.”
Since 2010 in the BFNL across all grades of football and netball, 62 of the 70 premierships have been won by city-based clubs.
Through that period 80 per cent of teams that have played in finals across all grades have been city-based.
The last country-based club to win a senior premiership was Gisborne in 2006, while the Bulldogs in 2013 are also that last country club to have won a senior final.
Kyneton has played senior finals for the past four seasons – including finishing top-three on the ladder this year – but has also built up an off-field debt that in August was $200,000.
“Without a doubt we’ve tried very hard to put a competitive team on the field and that was evident in finishing third on the ladder this year,” O’Sullivan said.
“Yes, we pay at the top end of the salary cap because we have to due to our population and losing players to bigger metropolises. We have to recruit and pay players to come in and it’s costly.
“We have done our very best, but our very best just isn’t good enough when you’re competing against very strong Bendigo clubs that are only getting stronger.”
• City v country clubs since 2010:
City clubs – Eaglehawk, Golden Square, Kangaroo Flat, Sandhurst, South Bendigo, Strathfieldsaye.
Country clubs – Castlemaine, Gisborne, Kyneton, Maryborough.
Total wins across all grades – City: 4438 (76.0%) Country: 1400 (24.0%).
Total finals teams – City: 283 (80%) Country: 67 (20%).
Total premierships – City: 62 (88%) Country: 8 (12%).
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