NULLAWILL Football Netball Club will play in the Golden Rivers Football Netball League next season, after their appeal to join the North Central Football League was dismissed at a hearing last Wednesday evening.
Nullawil were forced to appeal to the AFL Central Victoria Commission, after their original application was rejected by the Central Rivers Board last month.
The latest decision has resulted in the club now out of options to leave, with the Maroons remaining in the Golden Rivers until the end of the 2024 season – with the ruling also being handed down with the condition that the club is unable to negotiate with any other competition for a period of two years.
Speaking with The Guardian following the announcement, Nullawil Football Netball Club president Wade Humphreys was unable to hide his disappointment.
“It’s a joke – they reckon we didn’t provide enough information, I’m not sure how much more information they needed because we did everything that was asked of us,” Humphreys said.
“Basically, you’ve got people from Melbourne, making decisions about our club and our future and most of them wouldn’t even know where we live – all this decision will do is potentially finish our footy club and make our club weaker.”
Nullawil were a level above the competition in 2021, with their senior football team going through the season undefeated and with an average winning margin of over 105 points.
This was one of the main reasons behind the original decision to shift south, according to Humphreys.
“Our members have all voted to move for a reason – and that’s to play against a higher standard of competition than what we currently are, it’s as simple as that,” Humphreys said.
“The whole club’s frustrated about this decision, it could potentially bring our club to its knees if they want us to stay and play at a standard that we’re not happy at – people at our club don’t want to go to the football anymore and watch us play against a lesser standard each week.
“It’s a disgrace that people from Melbourne can make a decision on our behalf and on the behalf of our community, because effectively what they are going to do is shut us down.”
Central Rivers board chairman John Keely on the other hand was adamant the right decision had been made – and was looking forward to working with Nullawil over the coming seasons.
“We’re happy with the outcome, we felt we had a strong case for them to stay and the commission obviously agreed with us,” Keely said.
“We (the Central Rivers board) had a good relationship with them before and I would expect that will continue going forward.”
“The other clubs in the Golden Rivers Football Netball League didn’t want Nully to go in the first place, that was expressed pretty clearly in a league meeting over a month ago at Moulamein – they all wanted Nully to remain and I’m sure they will absolutely welcome them back with open arms next season.”
