Interleague over and out?

WHAT’S the point of interleague football when topline players are not interested in playing?
Many country football followers ask that question after every representative series.
This year, two bigname country leagues, the Geelong and Bellarine Football Leagues, acted on their disenchantment with the VCFL representative series and that action was swift and decisive.
They pulled out of the Victorian Country Football League’s showcase Country Championships forcing a reshuffle of the top three divisions.
The reasons cited for their departure was a combination of expense and the difficulty of getting their best players to commit to a weekend that meant nothing to their season’s efforts, other than the personal glory of playing in a league representative side.
This year’s championships have been held and won, but there was an air of inevitability about them from many across the state and that was transferred via the country media, much to the annoyance of VCFL chief executive Glen Scott.
He blasted the media for perceived negativity in a memo to affiliated league chiefs, but it appears he might have missed the point and fallen for the old trap of ‘shooting the messenger’.
The MPNFL situation is unique and, on face value, there is every reason for it to be the next to exit the VCFL Country Championship series.
Selecting a cohesive representative team from 33 clubs spread across three separate leagues is simply not possible and despite the best efforts of those involved, has failed to the extent that the MPNFL is now looking at relegation to Pool C.
How embarrassing for a league that proudly boasts it is the biggest in Victoria.
However, what would be the reaction of clubs and their star players if, instead of interleague, the MPNFL was prepared to run an intraleague tournament between teams selected from the three affiliated competitions?
According to many it would be very positive.
The time and format would be up for debate but, given there are three combatants, it could be a roundrobin similar to that in vogue at present, with each team playing two reduced time matches against their two rival leagues all on the same afternoon.
The winner would be worked out on victories and/or percentages derived from the points scored.
To encourage clubs to make players available there could be a twoweek midseason bye for all leagues, say in the first two weeks of June.
The MPNFL Championships would be held on the first weekend with everyone having a break on the second weekend, which would be the traditional Queen’s Birthday bye.
The positives would be many.
Players would play with rival teammates they actually knew and a sense of pride would immediately be fostered with each league wanting to prove itself the premier competition.
A big crowd would be likely and it would be a promoter’s dream with each league having its own identity and a good chance of attracting its own sponsor.
The costs involved for the MPNFL would revolve around kitting the teams out, but at least some of that would be offset by gate receipts.
Eleven out of 11 senior Casey Cardinia League officials (coaches or presidents) were in favour of giving the intraclub model a go, including this year’s MPNFL captain Michael Holland, Beaconsfield coach and noted interleague detractor Haydn Robins and Narre Warren president Kim McGill.
Robins said he would support it if there were a twoweek break.
“Playing the other leagues in our competition would be a better format for sure,” he said.
Holland has supported interleague football throughout his decorated career, but said the time had come to assess whether a more local representative competition was the way to go.
“I think the support from the clubs and football supporters would be better and not having to travel would be a bonus,” he said.
McGill was very enthusiastic about the idea and said it would help create more unity among the league’s clubs.
“I would absolutely support it. I think it would be a winner,” he said.
“Everyone sits around saying they’re the better league. Let’s find out.”