GDFL’s Buckley’s hope

ALL Geelong & District Football League clubs will receive a timely boost during sport’s hiatus, thanks to a $10,000 donation from the league.

The dividend was to be announced at the league’s season launch but will this week quietly lob in the bank accounts of all 12 clubs.

Thanks to the GDFL’s business interests, led by Buckley’s

Entertainment Centre, the league accumulated the funds to be handed out late last year.

There will be no stipulation on what the money can be used for, but it could be a crucial lifeline with all matches and training postponed until at least May 31 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“All our clubs are doing fairly well financially,” GDFL president Neville Whitley said.

“At the end of last year we accumulated a bit of money and we were going to give a $10,000 dividend to all of our clubs … that will go into their bank in the next week.

“So that will give them something to look forward to and at least it will give them a bit of a float when and if football and netball starts up again.

“It’s just something we do every now and then.

“We often allocate funds when we accumulate a bit through our business assets.

“That’s going to be held up for a little while going forward until those businesses are up and running again.

“(The money) just goes into their general account. We do at times put some money into their building fund and they have to use that for facilities and upgrading of their venues and that sort of stuff.”

Whitley said the league was in a holding pattern and was planning behind the scenes to resume as normal after the end of May.

All three senior football leagues in Geelong — the GDFL, BFL and GFL — will be on hold until AFL Victoria gives the green light for football.

But AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan told the Fox Footy Live podcast on Saturday that “it’s looking very unlikely” there will be any community football this year.

Whitley said his league wouldn’t “break ranks” and play without proper approval.

But he questioned if football could resume at the top level, why it wouldn’t be able to start at a local level.

“I would think that if AFL could start, why couldn’t grassroots start as well?” he said.

“(But) we won’t just start because we want to start. We will start when we are allowed to.

“We will be guided by what AFL Vic do and possibly what Geelong (Football League) and Bellarine (Football League) do (who are governed by AFL Barwon).”