President’s Midseason report
Here we are at the halfway mark of the Parklea EDFNL 2023 season and the new EDFNL Board of Management (BOM) is so far pleased with proceedings. Importantly good numbers have been reported by most clubs across all grades of football and netball and casting an eye over the ladders suggests plenty of competitive matches among all levels junior and senior. On the downside however, around the football fields there has been far too many reports of poor behaviour from players, officials and to a lesser extent spectators. This is somewhat uncharacteristic after good behaviour from all parties over the last five years or so. We have a terrific family friendly league lets all play our part to keep it that way.
Once again thank you to all clubs and parents for their acceptance of the junior catch up matches. While these extra matches can be inconvenient, they are all about maximising the amount games our youngsters play – essential for their development and the healthiness of the league.
At senior level football wise there is clearly five top sides but I predict a few upsets in the run up to the final round while in the other three grades the top five positions are yet to be all settled which means their will be plenty of exciting matches in the lead up to the finals.
On the netball front new Directors Karen Porter and Meaghan Newitt must also be pleased with the competitiveness across their grades. Similarly, the top five in all six grades are far from finalised. Last Saturday the reigning A grade premiers Neerim South put themselves in a strong position to go back-to-back after beating Nima Darnum in a replay of last year’s grand final. I also see the Netball Victoria Association Championships took place on 4 th June at Moe. Well done to all the players who earned the honour of representing the league and a thank you to the coaches and umpires. The feedback was all teams performed well especially our U13s who were runners up. The players looked terrific in their new uniforms and a big thank you to the Baw Baw Shire for the grant we used to purchase the new outfits.
On the junior football front the EDFNL will again participate in the Gippsland U18 carnival – this year on 28 June. Like last year there is no Gippy U16 carnival but to offset this and develop our U16s we held another East v West match at Lang Lang during the week and will play an Interleague match against the West Gippsland FNC also at Lang Lang on the 5th July. Our finals start on Saturday 26 August with the 2023 Parklea Grand Final to be played on Saturday 16 September. The finals venues will be announced early July.
On the administration side this year we have a two newcomers Tim Cosstick, who is doing an outstanding job assisting clubs with the Play HQ system and Tanya Helliar, who has refreshed and revitalised our social media. You may or not know but the Follower is now available on our league website and Instagram and via a QR at each ground thanks to Tanya. Very soon we will have a new league website and a new competition to announce on Instagram for EDFNL junior players.
The EDFNL is once again grateful to our sponsors. Indebted to have Parklea an Australian owned property developer sign on again as a naming right sponsor. I would also like to thank our other partners Physioworks, MP Wayne Farnham, Warragul Regional Newspapers, the Downtowner, John Duff & Co, Robin Hood Inn, Hip Pocket Warragul, Body Fit Training Warragul, Intersport Warragul - who sponsor our footballs this year, and AG Warehouse. We would also like to acknowledge our new sponsors Relink Consulting who sponsor this year’s MVP award, Quality Site Welding who provided a new grand final dais last season, C&R Strength & Conditioning and Almara Cabinets. Great to have SEN Track 91.9 Latrobe Valley back on board broadcasting our match of the day each Saturday afternoon.
Wishing everybody all the best in the second half of the season!
Roger Gwynne -EDFNL President
