Sorrento staying put, says AFL Barwon boss

SORRENTO has floated a shock move to join the Bellarine Football League in the face of a proposed revamp to the Mornington and South East football leagues.

But AFL Barwon general manager Lee Hartman has slammed the door shut on the idea of the undefeated Nepean Football League club joining the BFL.

Criminal lawyer and Sorrento president Bernie “The Attorney” Balmer is not happy with plans to overhaul the leagues on the Mornington Peninsula and bring in teams from the South East FNL.

Under the proposal, a Premier, Division 1 and Division 2 competition would be created in the AFL South East region.

But it would open the door for Sorrento to clash with sides such as Pakenham, 94km away. When asked whether Sorrento would consider migrating to the BFL, Balmer replied: “I think a lot of things have been thrown around in anger rather than sense.

“It could be on the cards, it’s only a ferry ride away,” he said.

However, Hartman quashed the potential move.

“We wouldn’t do that ob- viously,” he said. “It’s easy to say tongue in cheek ‘it’s only a ferry ride away’, but it just wouldn’t work for us. They’re obviously registered or affiliated over there so although we’ve got our own region restructure or divisional concept starting at the end of 2018, they obviously need to sort out their issues over there with their restructure.

“When you go through a restructure, not every club’s happy with that, but they’ll need to work through those issues over there. It’s something we wouldn’t entertain.”

The journey from Sorrento to Queenscliff is about 40 minutes, and it would take a further 55 minutes to drive from there to Anglesea or about 95 minutes total (74km). The road trip from Sorrento north to Pakenham is 94km, and travel time would be 77 minutes.