GISBORNE Football Netball Club\u2019s bid to switch leagues lies in the hands of AFL Victoria, after the Bendigo Football Netball League confirmed it would appeal the Bulldogs\u2019 transfer request to the Ballarat league.<\/p>\n
The Bendigo league\u2019s move comes less than a week after Gisborne members emphatically endorsed the move to the Ballarat league in a vote.<\/p>\n
The vote was 193 to 20 in favour of the move, with 11 members abstaining.<\/p>\n
In a separate vote a week earlier, the Ballarat league board and clubs voted 46-4 in favour of the Bulldogs entry.<\/p>\n
The Bendigo league announced it intention to appeal Gisborne\u2019s move in a statement released late Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BFNL remains steadfast in believing that the Gisborne FNC is an integral part of the league\u2019s competition and community and is committed to pursuing all available avenues to ensure the club\u2019s continued participation in the BFNL,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BFNL has a responsibility to safeguard the strength, stability and sustainability of the league and given Gisborne FNC\u2019s reputation within the BFNL, we believe their ongoing involvement is important to the health of our clubs, players, volunteers and supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BFNL will continue to follow the relevant AFL Victoria processes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gisborne FNC president Tony Brancatisano said the Bendigo league\u2019s response was fully expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll move to the next step now and work our way through the next part of the system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAFL Victoria will look at it and see what it thinks need to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not worried. We, as a club, have already started working on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope AFL Victoria looks on us favourably. When we originally put in our submission, we hadn\u2019t got to a club vote, so that part of it wasn\u2019t in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBallarat still hadn\u2019t voted, but the submissions had to be in well before that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brancatisano reiterated the members and in particular players had spoken and were vigorously supportive of the mood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a very healthy exercise if you don\u2019t want to be somewhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, the club belongs to the members and they have voted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expected this (BFNL announcement), but we were already working hard in the background.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brancatisano said the club\u2019s bigger focus was on this weekend\u2019s first week of finals.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs have their senior football and A-grade and A-reserve netball teams involved in qualifying finals on Saturday, and their under-18 football and 17-and-under netball teams in elimination finals on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Two netball teams – B-grade and B-reserve \u2013 finished as minor premiers and will not make an appearance to the second week of finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GISBORNE Football Netball Club\u2019s bid to switch leagues lies in the hands of AFL Victoria, after the Bendigo Football Netball League confirmed it would appeal the Bulldogs\u2019 transfer request to the Ballarat league. The Bendigo league\u2019s move comes less than a week after Gisborne members emphatically endorsed the move to the Ballarat league in a […]<\/p>\n