Juniors are the key to Stars

By Brad Kingsbury
GARFIELD Football Club president Judy Bishop denied this week pressure of travel outside the district was the driving force behind the decision to assess the club’s future as part of the West Gippsland Latrobe Football League.
Ms Bishop said the main problem was a lack of competitive junior sides with the ability to match their bigtown rivals.
She said that underaged players were in short supply at the Stars, the club having 18 under16 boys and only 11 on the under18 list at present.
Several recent departures to neighbouring clubs were also a major cause of unrest that saw the club form a group to assess its future last week.
Ms Bishop said that it was only a minority who were pushing for the club to assess its options, however the haste with which action was taken suggests that there was significant clout behind the unrest.
A nineperson working party with an independent chairman will decide the club’s future after this season and there appears to be three options.
It could stay in the WGLFL or join either the Ellinbank and District Football League or the MPNFL Casey Cardinia League.
The neighbouring EDFL is the obvious option.
Garfield would need to change its junior structure to include under13, 15 and –17 sides and likely pull teams out of the Warragul and District junior league to fill those sides.
Despite its only average form in the WGLFL, the Stars would likely blitz the EDFL sides with its player list and an application to join the district league may be viewed unfavourably by member clubs.
With Dingley confirming its exit from the Casey Cardinia League next year, the problem of an uneven number of clubs is immediately solved should affiliation with the MPNFL competition be sought.
The Stars would need to field only an under18 side in the Casey Cardinia League but then would run the risk of losing the link to its under16 talent.
The question of competitiveness would be an issue given the Casey Cardinia League has improved vastly, however recruits would be easier to attract with less emphasis on travel and the club’s good players would still compete in a topstandard competition.
The Stars could renew their rivalries with Pakenham, Beaconsfield, ROC and Tooradin but would surrender their treasured perception that they play “country not suburban football”.
Ms Bishop was confident that the right decision would be made.
She would not be drawn on her own views but agreed that it was an important decision for the club and the community of Garfield.
“I do not have a view either way,” she said.
“What I am sure of is that we have the right people, who care about Garfield, on the working party and that they will make a decision based on what is best for the club in the future.”
The inclusion of WGLFL general manager (and Garfield stalwart) Chris Soumilas on the working party has sparked accusations of a potential conflict of interest, given it would be hard for a person that runs a league to weigh up, without bias, a club’s prospects in a rival competition.
However WGLFL president Adrian Gravener said he had no problem with his chief administrator sitting on the panel and believed that, with his long history at the club, he should be part of the decisionmaking process.
Gravener was also comfortable with Garfield’s move, saying that he could see a future for the club in the WGLFL given the potential growth in the area, but that the club had to make its own decision.
“I honestly believe that it’s a good process for them to go through,” he said.
“I have discussed it with Chris and am fully aware of the situation. I have no problem with it at all.”