Most of the visitors to matches at Kilmore I speak to seem to enjoy the experience. You can watch the game in comfortable clubrooms with a cold beer and roaring wood fire. Or if you decide, you can park just about anywhere around the ground and watch the game seated in your own car listening to the AFL footy on the radio. Not too many suburban grounds where you can do that. People exaggerate the travel time too. You're usually cruising down the Hume sitting on 110 km/h, rather than sitting at traffic lights in suburbia. The league showed great vision if you ask me. I reckon Wallan will be back eventually and with the projected growth of the northern corridor it won't be long before Donnybrook, Kalkallo and Beveridge are fielding teams. The NFNL administration showed foresight admitting Kilmore before they looked at going to the EDFL.Oh I’m not anti-Panton Hill either, especially with them having been in for 20 years now. But the league keeps extending their boundaries an adding new clubs who are even further away with Kilmore in and Kinglake supposedly a candidate. I don’t think they should go any further until maybe the next 10 years. Add in teams who are firmly within boundaries (like the Turtles) but Kinglake should stay out, especially being so far from any urban areas and not looking like having a development like what Mernda/Wollert are now.
The further teams are a pain for the juniors especially with parents having to drive about an hour sometimes.