Big dry threatens football season

By Brad Kingsbury
THE football season in the district will be delayed after the Casey Cardinia League was put back a week.
Officials will monitor the condition of grounds including Berwick and Narre Warren before allowing matches to be played in 2007.
The season is now scheduled to start on Saturday, 28 April, with a revised draw, but Berwick’s Edwin Flack Reserve will not be used until 12 May, while the first game to grace Kalora Park at Narre Warren is scheduled to kick off a week later on Saturday, 19 May.
At this stage neighbouring competitions including the Ellinbank and District (EDFL) and West Gippsland Latrobe Leagues (WGLFL) will start their seasons on 14 April as scheduled.
However officials from both competitions said that a start would depend on approval from clubs and local authorities that grounds were safe and playable.
The Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League (MPNFL) has been forced to delay the season start for its three competitions after it was decided that some grounds needed extra time to be prepared for match play.
In addition the league has reduced the duration of games to further conserve playing surfaces this year.
Senior game quarters will go from 25 minutes, plus timeon, to 20 minutes plus timeon, while reserves and under18 quarters will be a straight 20 minutes without timeon.
The new draw has also placed the interleague clash between the MPNFL and WGLFL over the Queen’s Birthday weekend in doubt.
The three MPNFL competitions will now play a full homeandaway round on the long weekend and few, if any, clubs will be keen for their stars to miss the round in favour of the oneoff representative game.
MPNFL general manager Ian Benson said that all parties had been informed about the changes but, given the drought conditions, there was always the chance of further changes in future.
Melbourne’s water storages are just 4.4 per cent above the trigger point for stage four restrictions and if the drought does not ease soon, the stage four trigger of 29.3 per cent will be reached by early May.
Stagefour restrictions will ban the watering of all local grounds and reserves, except those used by professional sporting bodies.
Most local reserves are not traditionally watered during the heart of football season because rainfall is normally adequate.
EDFL secretary Peter Gallasch confirmed that there were concerns about the condition of Kooweerup’s ground, the venue for the league’s last two grand finals.
However he said that with more than six weeks to the season start, there was still time for rain to fall and preparations to take place.
“We’ve got plans in place, but at this stage we expect to start on time,” he said.
“Clubs will be asked for a ground assessment at this month’s executive meeting but, except for Kooweerup, they appear to be on track for the season.”
Gallasch said that the league would continue to monitor the situation at all grounds and clubs were working with authorities and their committees of management (where applicable) to ensure the best possible conditions were maintained.
WGLFL general manager Chris Soumilas was also positive about the prospects of the competition starting on time.
“Most of our grounds are looking alright,” he said. “The only grounds sufferring a bit are Drouin and Morwell.”
“Most of the grounds in Cardinia come under a committee of management and everyone’s working towards starting on time.”