By Marcus Uhe
Members of the Berwick Springs Football Netball Club have voted in the “overwhelming majority” to move competitions and join the Southern Football Netball League (SFNL) in 2025, leaving Outer East Football Netball (OEFN).
The decision comes in the wake of the looming relegation prospect for the Titans at the end of 2024, which would see them join Division One and travel to towns such as Alexandra, Yea and Yarra Junction.
The Titans sit last in the Outer East’s Premier football division, with the league announcing in April that the bottom three teams in Premier Division football would be relegated.
The Titans’ A Grade netball team, promoted as a result of the football side’s success in 2023, is also last on the Premier Division A Grade ladder.
Berwick Springs Chairman Ashley Allison believed the club would risk an exodus of players leaving if the club decided to stay in OEFN, risking relegation.
“We haven’t had the success we wanted so far, but we recruited a range of players, in excess of 10, to come and play Premier Division footy,” Allison said.
“If we went back and said we were playing in Division One, the reality is we’d lose I would say, 100 per cent of those players.”
He said it was “disappointing” that the club had reached the decision to leave OEFN behind, but said there were a number of attractive factors about the SFNL.
“We think there is a breadth of competitions for us (in SFNL) as a club,” he said.
“Travel is a massive issue for us if we were to be in Division One, but there is a breadth of options, having four divisions in SFNL, and having the ability for netball to spread across 14 divisions of netball.
“We can then position our teams where we think is best suited for them in competition.
“It’s a concern of ours that the netball goes with football as well, because we’ve really struggled with netball in terms of being competitive in Premier Division.
“Not everyone was happy with that decision, but we had to go with the majority rules.”
The application comes on the back of Narre Warren’s application to join the SFNL last month.
Should the application be successful, the Titans would be the third OEFN team in the last 12 months to apply to move to the SFNL, with Hallam returning after one season in the OEFN in 2023.
