St Bongo
Senior List
The fact that Berwick, Narre Warren and Cranbourne and to a lesser extent Beaconsfield and Pakenham are in what is officially a country league seems incongruous. Those areas ceased to be "country" a long time ago. The controlling body (AFL Victoria) did a review of country football but seem too scared to actually make real changes. Some leagues need to be modified/merged/split. To think that leagues that were put together years ago should stay that way forever in the face of continually changing demographics and the urbanisation of the city fringe is head in the sand stuff. The blurry line seperating country football from metropolitan football is moving all the time and has raised problems that weren't foreseen when most leagues that span that boundary were put together. If the controlling body won't do it, eventually individual clubs will, creating a piecemeal ad-hoc approach that is no good for anyone.
The MPNFL has overlaps and synergies with the SFL, EDFL, EFL, and the YVMDFL. That grouping needs to be seriously looked at with a fresh approach and measures taken to improve local football for all involved. Of those leagues its the MPNFL and the YVMDFL that mostly have the issues caused by spanning the boundary between urban and rural areas. The whole issue definately needs more debate and wise heads but maybe the best solution would be an expanded EFL (possibly renamed SEFL) that incorporates the stronger metropolitan teams from the MPNFL, SFL and YVMDFL in the appropriate divisions. The more rural based teams from those leagues would be incorporated into expanded/rationalized country leagues. The old chestnut of travel would certainly be raised but the country leagues have always had to travel huge distances and the ammos have always travelled all over the metropolitan area so some of the suburban clubs need to get a bit more mature in their outlook to travelling.
The MPNFL has overlaps and synergies with the SFL, EDFL, EFL, and the YVMDFL. That grouping needs to be seriously looked at with a fresh approach and measures taken to improve local football for all involved. Of those leagues its the MPNFL and the YVMDFL that mostly have the issues caused by spanning the boundary between urban and rural areas. The whole issue definately needs more debate and wise heads but maybe the best solution would be an expanded EFL (possibly renamed SEFL) that incorporates the stronger metropolitan teams from the MPNFL, SFL and YVMDFL in the appropriate divisions. The more rural based teams from those leagues would be incorporated into expanded/rationalized country leagues. The old chestnut of travel would certainly be raised but the country leagues have always had to travel huge distances and the ammos have always travelled all over the metropolitan area so some of the suburban clubs need to get a bit more mature in their outlook to travelling.
