Stars to shine in EDFL

By Paul Pickering
GARFIELD Football Club president Neville Bow believes the Stars will be revitalised by transferringto the Ellinbank and District Football League in 2010.
The ailing West Gippsland Latrobe Football League club was recently thrown a lifeline by EDFL club delegates, who voted in favour of accepting Garfield into the league.
The move effectively saved Garfield from going into recess.
Bow is confident that the local community will get behind the club after its reprieve.
“It’s just a relief and everybody’s really happy about it,” he said this week.
“A lot of players have hinted that they want to come back; some senior players and some twos’ players who went to surrounding clubs because they didn’t want to travel.”
Stars’ officials did some heavy lobbying in the lead-up to last month’s delegates’ meeting, setting the record straight on the club’s initial move to the regional league.
“A few of the clubs actually thought that we went into West Gippsland Latrobe of our own accord, but the real reason was that we had nowhere else to go,” Bow explained.
Their bid to change that perception paid off, with a couple of club delegates changing their mind to force a hung vote at 7-7.
That gave EDFL president Roger Gwynne the deciding vote and, with league officials eyeing a two-tier competition in the near future, the prospect of a 15th club was always going to be appealing.
Garfield must now meet the league’s requirements to field teams in all five divisions of the EDFL, plus a full complement of netball sides.
Bow says that won’t be a problem, because the club has the option of pulling some of its junior teams from the Warragul and District league to ensure representation in Ellinbank.
At senior level, the Stars will retain Brent Eastwell as coach next season.
Bow is hopeful that the seniors will be bolstered by the return of some former players, but said that the club wouldn’t be launching an aggressive recruiting campaign over the off-season.
“We won’t go overboard, because we spent a fair bit of money last year on upgrading our clubrooms,” he said.
“But our goal is to be competitive and hopefully the side we’ve got there now might make finals.
“That’s what it’s all about.”