Netball gears up for reset of its own

THE decision to pull the pin on senior local football also means netball has had to be abandoned for the year.

AFL Barwon made the call on Monday night to cancel plans for its modified competition, but clubs will still be allowed to train and organise practice matches.

Bell Park was one club committed to playing, getting enough numbers to fill the two netball teams required.

But Dragons president Dean Williams supported AFL Barwon’s decision.

“I know it’s sad but I also think it’s in the best interests of the clubs that they made that decision at this point in time,” Williams said.

“The other thing was we were starting to find that to get people back at this stage, people were starting to lose interest.

“We were happy to go if they were going to get it up, but even though girls had shown interest, I don’t know if they were all going to 100 per cent commit if we got to it in August anyway. We probably need to reset for 2021.”

Williams said people had “probably got used to their Saturdays not having sport”.

“I think they’ve probably quite enjoyed the fact that … you’ve got those Saturdays to yourself and you’re not doing stuff. It probably is making life a little bit easier in ways,” he said.

AFL Barwon region general manager Will McGregor said the criteria for clubs was to enter one football side and two netball teams.

He said appetite for games had diminished.

“There was some initial interest. It was very similar to the football situation,” McGregor said.

“We did have some clubs that were able to field a football side but not a netball side and some clubs that were able to participate in netball, but not football.”