Is the carnival over?

Football, netball interleague matches under review

THE future of interleague football in Victoria is up in the air as a review takes place into its feasibility.

AFL Victoria is canvassing leagues and clubs across the state to gauge whether the mid-season contests between leagues should continue in its current format.

Highton’s Queens Park hosted an interleague festival in May, with GFNL falling to the Northern FNL, BFNL defeating GDFNL in the men’s and AFL Barwon accounting for Northern in the women’s match.

Two representative netball matches were also played at the sporting complex on the day.

AFL Barwon regional general manager Will McGregor said the local overseeing body didn’t have a position on the review. He said clubs and leagues had been given the chance to provide feedback on interleague, with no date known yet for the review to be finalised by AFL Victoria.

Leagues are able to opt in or out of the competition each year.

While Geelong-region leagues have long committed to the concept, competitions in more rural locations often have to weigh up travel and cost factors, as well as the availability of players and volunteers. The lure of a week off also makes it hard for some leagues to field their best players.

The GFNL has been a powerhouse of interleague football in recent years, having played in the 1v2 showdown game every year since 2013.

The league won five interleague titles in a row between 2013-17, before losing the 2018 playoff. But the league again contested the one-versus-two showdown this year after the top-ranked Eastern Football League pulled out of the carnival.

But following its loss, GFNL fell to third on the statewide rankings, behind Northern and the Mornington Peninsula Nepean FL.

BFNL sits in 14th on the table and GDFNL is in 17th place.