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BALLARAT is looming as the most likely inter-league opponent for Bendigo next year, with the two goldfields rivals having opened discussions about a 2020 clash.
With next year's Community Championships having been axed by AFL Victoria last week, it has left it up to leagues to pursue an inter-league match should they want to play a representative game.
The BFNL is keen to provide both its footballers and netballers with an inter-league game and discussions are under way with the Ballarat league.
"It's still early days, but we've been talking with another league that has as much interest as we do," BFNL manager Cameron Tomlins said on Thursday.
"Nothing is locked in at this stage, but we've had some really positive discussions and there's certainly a like-for-like in terms of fitting the geographic need and there's already an existing rivalry.
"We're looking for something that is cost-effective and is going to have buy-in from both the players and community as well."
Tomlins says the BFNL's preference for next year is for its inter-league program to feature senior and under-18 football and open and under-17 netball.
"We're really keen that whatever happens with the football will also happen for netball as well with any replacement inter-league match that we run," Tomlins said.
Bendigo and Ballarat have met four times in senior football inter-league games since 2009, with the ledger 3-1 in favour of Ballarat.
A preferred date for Bendigo to play an inter-league match is on Saturday, May 2 - the same day as the Groovin' The Moo festival, which over the years has impacted player and volunteer numbers for clubs.
While the BFNL is working with Ballarat for a match next year, Bendigo did receive an approach from the Heathcote District league.
However, the BFNL is keen to pursue a game against a fellow major league, with the HDFNL now turning its focus to organising a match with the Murray league.
Murray was Heathcote District's scheduled 2020 opponent based on the Community Championships rankings.
"We've made an approach to the Murray league. We were due to play them next year and they are relatively close to us," HDFNL chairman Peter Cole said.
"They have said they will take it to their clubs to discuss, so it's a start."
The HDFNL is also keen to play an inter-league game on the Groovin' The Moo weekend.
Meanwhile, the North Central league says it will gauge the interest from its clubs before making a decision on whether to pursue an inter-league match next year.
"It will come down to whether the clubs will support it," NCFL general manager Lance Standfield said.
"We'll ratify a decision on inter-league at our AGM (December 11)."
AFL Victoria says that while the Community Championships format won't continue in 2020, the same amount of funding will be available "for any relevant inter-league matches".
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