Western Border FL discussion 2023

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MortlockWatcher said:
KNTFL have now officially publicly rejected the findings. If the SANFL try to force the changes to occur, there is a strong chance the league will disaffiliate and go its own way and have full control of its own affairs, leaving the others to do whatever they want.

From there, there would probably be a two division league involving MSE and WB clubs, but if MSE decided to follow the lead that KNT probably will, then the Mount Gambier clubs would be out on their own and would have to play in a four-club comp like they do in Broken Hill or the Upper Murray comp in Victoria.
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If the Kntfl doesn’t go through then WBFL will stay as is . Casterton won’t get to go to the MDSE.
If the KNTFl goes through and we have a 14 team comp. South West North Millicent Penola play each other twice every season .. then play the other teams once alternating home and away over 2 seasons . Not much travel .
Heard that Hamilton and Portland aren’t thriving in the Hampden ..getting them back would be great and solve some problems.

Upper south east teams are only a couple of hours away from Adelaide and with plenty of money in the country get top Adelaide players travelling to play . So will be able to compete with the Mount teams in the seniors.

The western border league at the moment is a little boring but everyone travels to watch their team play and easy on the petrol.
 

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It’s very tough for them to attract players - I don’t think swapping leagues will make it much easier but who knows. Both the merged Hamilton club and Portland have been starved of success. Ironically, both have won the last two Under 18.5 flags, but that hasn’t helped their senior sides. In 10 years in a 10 term comp, Portland played in their first finals series last year, where they beat Warrnambool in the elimination before getting beat by 90 by South in the First Semi. Hamilton have never played finals. They will finish 9th and 10th this year. All in a period were Port Fairy have been pretty average. The comp has evened up this year and both have been competitive but facts are facts.
 
Bottom line - the issue is around being to attract players - in the good old days they were able to rip players and coaches out of Adelaide ie Blackwell / Jeffries. But during the same period every Hampden League coach was ex AFL - now donuts 🍩.

Are they going to be any better off attracting players going back to the Mount?

The world has changed…not for the better in this sphere, but if you work hard at it the circle will turn - Koroit have won the last 7 flags but this year Camperdown, Terang and Cobden are all vying to play finals - Portland’s kids are good they just need to stay the course
 
Atleast they are talking about keeping WBFL. Adding teams is the only way. If they survive, the decision makers should set out a plan to poach teams anywhere they can. Load the league with teams.
 

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To say that the WBFL is boring is an understement.
I cannot see them going anywhere no matter what happens. Football is shot in this region the lack of talent in this area is beyond belief and the standard of football is abysmal.
I have been watching wbfl for 60 years and am completely turned off and have not been to a game all season and unlikely ever to return. I simply have better things to do.
 
klem22 said:
To say that the WBFL is boring is an understement.
I cannot see them going anywhere no matter what happens. Football is shot in this region the lack of talent in this area is beyond belief and the standard of football is abysmal.
I have been watching wbfl for 60 years and am completely turned off and have not been to a game all season and unlikely ever to return. I simply have better things to do.
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Barrack for East by any chance ?
 
The current proposal, put forward by the South East football and netball working group, would see the disbandment of the Western Border Football League, with its six clubs distributed between the Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara and Mid South Eastern competitions.

Put forward to all three leagues and the public in last month, the proposal would have Casterton Sandford and East Gambier transition to a rebranded MSE league, while Millicent, North, South and West Gambier would join the current KNT clubs.

While the finer details of the proposal are yet to be released, there are many who remain uncertain why there has been a push for change in the first place.

In light of this The Border Watch has been provided with some data and key information regarding the current state of all three South East football competitions.

The information, collected over the span of several years, sheds some light on the major concerns for all three leagues and their longevity.

Playing numbers is the key component to the data and over the last six years there has been a steady decline across the region.

Since 2017 the WBFL numbers for senior players – aged 18 and over – have dropped by 130, while MSEFL has lost 167 and KNTFL is down 209.

Combined this is a staggering total of 506 players, which for context is more than the entire current senior playing lists from every KNTFL club combined.

Adding further weight to these figures is the fact 176 players currently registered in the Limestone Coast are aged 36 or older.

Western Border has 53 players in this age bracket and KNT has 49, with Mid South East leading the statistic with 74.

The dwindling registration numbers are by no means reserved to the senior ranks, with worrying statistics in the junior ranks outlining concerns for the future.

There are clubs across all three leagues which have felt the strain of putting junior teams on the park.

In particular the 13-17-year-old age bracket faces some adversities, which is concerning when considering the fact it covers two separate grades.

In the MSEFL Kalangadoo has only 13 players registered in this age bracket for 2023, while Nangwarry has 15 players in that demographic.

Looking at the younger ranks and Mount Burr has just six players in the Under 12 bracket.

In the KNTFL, Mundulla has suffered a 42 per cent decline of registered players in the Under 12 age bracket from 2019 to 2023 and currently sits at 14 players.

Border Districts has 16 players in the 13-17 group, while Padthaway and Lucindale combine for a total of 16 players in the Under 12 category.

Padthaway itself has 11 registered players in the 13-17 bracket.

The same issues in the WBFL see a disparity between the clubs.

In the Under 12 age bracket, Millicent has 50 per cent less players registered than both North and South Gambier, while Casterton Sandford has a total of 60 less players in this group than the two Mount Gambier clubs.

Further details on the working group’s proposal are expected by next month, while the final cut off for a decision is early September.
 
Due to ever decreasing population, I reckon by 2040 Victorian football will be a regional setup whereby places such as Ballarat, Bendigo, Horsham, Warrnambool, Geelong, Mildura-Swan Hill, Goulburn-Murray, North East and Gippsland will be the hub for a league. All the other leagues will disappear and fall under this structure, reducing the number of leagues from the current total of around 40 to barely 10.

The top division will be what we know as the Ballarat league, the Wimmera league, the Hampden league, etc. while the smaller clubs/towns in the region will be in a geographic set up (e.g. South West Regional FL - Div 1 Hampden, Div 2 West and East for SWDFL/WDFL/MDFL clubs, with maybe a scope for another division depending on how many clubs there are).

The only way to fight the decline is to remove the necessity for reserves teams for struggling clubs but really that is delaying the inevitable.

Ten years from now, not all of the MSE, KNT and WB clubs we know now will be around. There is no simple fix to the SE region conundrum (unless two towns with a population of 5000+ magically appear somewhere within close proximity to Mt Gambier) because of the distances involved if you put the KNT into any merger scenario.
 
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The below is from the SAFooty forum - it was written by RoaringLion in DECEMBER 2011.
Not much has changed on this front it appears:


The WBFL used to be a strong competition who regularly drew Ex SANFL/VFL/AFL players to the League as players/coaches & the WBFL was extremely competitive in VCFL Division 1 Country Inter League Championships through out the 70's / 80's & early 90's period but the standard has fallen away as they now struggle to be competitive in the VCFL Division 2 Country Inter League Championships.

There were originally 12 x WBFL Clubs but going into Season 2012 there will only be a 9 x Team Competition.
With the approval of non-competitive Heywood over a 30 yr period moving to the SWDFL for next season which also follows the previous defections of Coleraine's move to the SWDFL in the late 90's & Penola's move to the KNTFL in the mid 80's & the regular applications to the League from Hamilton x 2 & Hamilton Imperials x 5 for approval to move to HFL (which have been rejected).

The future for this current WBFL format unfortunately looks bleak so hopefully with the review that takes place throughout Season 2012 we do not see the death of the WBFL.

The AFL with its multi-billion TV rights deals should be investing a little back into the grass roots competitions which has been a previous breeding ground for AFL talent & with some investment into the right structure the WBFL could once again be force.

What options are there for the WBFL?
Do they leave it the way it is & try attract another 1 or 2 Teams to join from the SWDFL / HFL / MSEFL / KNTFL??
Do the VCFL / SACFL decide to part ways & join their Victorian & South Australian Clubs to existing competitions???
Would this mean the South Australian Clubs from the WBFL / MSEFL / KNTFL join forces to make a South Eastern FL with the 22 x Clubs split into 2 x Divisions of 10-12 Teams across in each Division 1 & Division 2 with a promotion / relegation system each season for the weakest 2 x Division 1 teams going down & strongest 2 x Division 2 Teams coming up???
With a similar scenario for the Victorian Clubs joining current Leagues????

Where to next for the WBFL is the million dollar question.....
 
Simple fix imho is to take the ‘N’ out of KNT and put naracoorte into the WB with penola. What about Robe? Would they be competitive in the WB?


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
 
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