Above: West Gippsland Latrobe Football League president Brian McKenzie (left) with six predecessors at Monday’s season launch at Garfield. From left: Joe Hutchison, Rod Ferguson, Jack Huxtable, Adrian Gravener, Bill Doherty and Mick Fox.
Brad Kingsbury
WEST Gippsland Latrobe Football League president Brian McKenzie said that the league’s challenge as it moved ahead was to promote itself as a major sporting body throughout Gippsland.
His comments, at the season launch held at Garfield on Monday night, were supported by Victorian Country Football League chief executive Glenn Scott, who added that the WGLFL was the only major league in the Gippsland area and deserved to be a leader in the sporting community.
The season launch saw representatives from the nine member football and netball clubs join league life members, sponsors and guests to officially kick off the 2007 season before the first round of matches on Saturday, 14 April.
While McKenzie and Scott addressed the crowd about the state of the game and touched on issues such as participation levels and the drought, a highlight was the attendance of former Hawthorn and Richmond star of the 1970s and 1980s Barry Rowlings, who spoke about his experiences.
Rowlings began his senior career in the then Latrobe Valley Football League, playing 99 games with Moe before forging a 230game career at the elite level.
McKenzie concluded the evening by welcoming the newly appointed administrators and five new coaches to the competition and predicted a competitive 2007 season.
