Footy record goes digital for one league

By Lachlan Ellis

The old-fashioned footy record has moved online in the Central Highlands Football League (CHFL), as part of a drive to “appeal to a wider audience”.

The move may take some time for traditionalists to get around – with some clubs rumoured to be considering their own paper footy records for supporters – but CHFL President Doug Hobson said it was a necessary change.

“We have been trying to get the clubs, if they’re able to, to get team lists out, because we do realise there will be the odd person that doesn’t have a smartphone and can’t use the app. But we haven’t done away with the program, we’ve just changed the format,” Mr Hobson told the Moorabool News.

“The decision was made late 2020, early 2021. Last year with the 12 rounds of seniors and 15 rounds of juniors, we had a digital program as well. We talked to the clubs for a while beforehand, and said we were looking to do that. As a board, we decided that was the way to go.”

Footy records have been made available on the free ‘GameFace Record’ app, which is available on Android and iOS, and also provides quarter-by-quarter score updates.

Mr Hobson said the move to digital-only was partly about expanding footy records to a wider audience, and partly for financial reasons.

“We had a weekly thing sent out to each club they could print off to give to people that didn’t have a program, but that wasn’t widely taken up by the clubs. We do understand there are some people disgruntled that we haven’t got the old paper-based programs,” he said.

“But realistically, we were only getting 50 of those tops to people at that gate. We’ve got five grades of football, so that’s only 10 programs per grade. So there wasn’t a huge uptake for starters. The financial aspect had a part to play in the decision, but it was about getting out to a wider audience too.

“It has become very expensive to print programs, especially when we only do small runs of them. But the feedback has been fairly positive overall…we’ve had some complaints from ex-Presidents and other people, but we can’t reverse that. We’re trying to be frugal after two years without finals…the only income we have is sponsors, we’re very thankful for those groups that support us.”

Though the last two years have been tough for the League financially, there is optimism that this year will finally see the return of a full football and netball season.

Ballarat Football Netball League (BFNL) General Manage Shane Anwyl told the Moorabool News they still have a printed football record for the 2022 season.

“We have a separate one for the Seniors and Juniors however, the BFL Women’s has an online footy record,” he said.

Mr Anwyl said the BFL have explored the option of an online football record but there is still a desire for the printed version.

“Down the track if there is an online option, the only way to do it is if it is interactive rather than just a PDF version.

“Whilst there is still that desire, we shall continue in our current format,” Mr Anwyl concluded.

To read the full story – Simply click on the following link

https://issuu.com/themooraboolnews/docs/mn_2022-05-17/21

in the 17 May 2022 edition
OR
pick up a paper around your town.