Leader: Be realistic
AVictorian AFL official has emphasised a need for Wimmera-mallee football and netball clubs to be realistic and proactive about their long-term sustainability.
AFL Victoria regional manager Jason Muldoon said a declining membership base and financial strain meant there was a looming possibility for more club mergers across the region.
He said declining club members was the largest issue facing country Victorian football and circumstances in Wimmera and Horsham District leagues were no exception.
He stressed that as a result, club leaders needed to be creative and maintain a forward-thinking approach about what needed to happen for their organisations to remain viable or sustainable.
He also added football peak-body leaders were aware of and concerned about vulnerabilities of clubs and competitions.
“We are constantly assessing the situation,” he said.
“If clubs feel they can sustain themselves for the next five years, then great. But if they are unsure, come to us and negotiate. A merger is one possibility.
“The region’s population is not growing significantly and towns are not employing all the people who used to sustain football and netball clubs. Unfortunately, it means clubs must adapt.”
Mr Muldoon said honest conversations were important for clubs to have before situations became unsolvable.
“We hope to avoid clubs reaching a ‘tipping point’ before looking for solutions,” he said.
“The tipping point is too late. We have seen that in the past with Horsham United and we really want to avoid those circumstances before it is too late to act.”
Former Wimmera league club Horsham United, which joined the competition from Horsham District league as Imperials-wonwondah in the 1980s, merged with Natimuk to form Natimuk United Football Club in 2014.
“Clubs need to think five years ahead and assess if a merger could give the club some direction,” Mr Muldoon said.
“That is something we’d have to look at.”
Mr Muldon said demographic factors were also leading to mainstream sporting competitions in the region developing an ‘uneven’ character.
“The three major population centres, Horsham, Ararat and Stawell, are not facing the same population decline as smaller towns, so there needs to be some strategic decisions moving forward,” he said.
“From a league perspective we don’t have a lot of options.
“When and where mergers occur might be dependent on geographics and how population issues affect towns in the region.
“West of Horsham has seen a few mergers already.”
Mr Muldoon said there was no easy answer to these issues, however clubs had to be strategic and honest about their long-term futures.
Weekend club-based football and netball club competitions, which many community leaders in the past have described as ‘the glue that joins the region’ or something similar, have long dominated mainstream sport across western Victoria.
Demographic analysts in the past have also used participation and membership figures in these competitions to measure aspects of regional socioeconomic connectivity.
Many towns and communities now represented by individual clubs across the Wimmera-mallee and Ararat district have previously been homes to whole leagues.
As we take tentative steps in trying to emerge from a COVID-19 pandemic we are already seeing aspects of everyday life that appear to have either changed or at least settled into a form of holding pattern.
Despite how much we try to push for a return to a degree of pre-pandemic normality, we are sure to experience lasting personal, business and community effects across society.
We’ve already seen changes, from the subtle to the dramatic, to how we communicate, go about our business, interact and socialise. We’re also suspecting many changes are becoming embedded as part of a ‘new’ normal.
If there is one part of traditional life we can readily monitor, through memberships and volunteers, it is how keen people are to re-engage or otherwise with a competitive sporting culture that has long provided a conduit between and within communities.
Keen observers would have noticed some energetic children getting back into recreational activities.
But they perhaps might have also noted an absence of others, depending on everything from childhood whims and parental encouragement to community health fears.
They might have also observed, curiously, a great hesitancy in adults in continuing their involvement in competitive sport. We can’t help but wonder whether the pandemic, combined with ever-pressing individual workloads and perhaps a greater acknowledgment of armchair entertainment, has provided many previously active adults with an opportunity to ‘opt out’.
Add the well-known issues of shifting and ageing populations, passive fitness alternatives and so on and we might well be left with diminished participation in competitive sport, particularly in the adult population.
There is more than a hint of this in the air, especially when considering mainstream sporting pursuits such as football and cricket in the region, but it is also revealing itself in other sporting pastimes.
If this is happening or might happen, is it good or bad for communities or simply represents changing habits and change in society in general?
We’re unsure – we could well be simply entering new ground and a new world of ideals.
What we know is that many of us yearn for physical competition – to challenge ourselves against an opponent or opponents as well as ourselves – regardless of the sports we choose, our age and where we live. We also love to barrack.
Many of us have had it drilled into us that participation and trying hard is all that matters in community sport.
But any who have played competitive sport have always known it is always better to win than lose.
As we venture into a POST-COVID world we’re going to have all sorts of choices and directions to consider.
Being involved in or a participant in competitive community sport is one of them.