Tara Murray
The Riddell District Football Netball League has been announced as a finalist for the Netball Victoria community awards association of the year.
The finalists for the award were named last week, with the RDFNL in the running for association of the year against the Casey, North Central and Sale netball associations.
RDFNL operations general manager Grace Bibby said they had made some changes to now they managed the competition since 2020 and it had paid off.
“I am sure there would have been many very worthy nominations and to be listed in the top four is fantastic recognition for our staff and also our hard working coordinators at club land,” she said.
“Being named a finalist is a result of four years of work that wouldn’t have been possible without the support from our clubs, the RDFNL chief executive Jordan Doyle and Netball Victoria.
“The RDFNL have always tried to be proactive and are strong in the stance of anything we do for football we do for netball.
“Because of that philosophy we have filmed matches, statistics, stages on grand final days, player reports, tribunal and more annual awards than ever which has allowed netball to have a greater presence through our marketing as well.”
Bibby said the league’s participation has continued to flourish and this season with the league introducing D-grade and nine and under competitions along the introduction of new teams.
Kyneton joined the competition this year, while Gisborne Giants fielded their first senior netball team which won the D-grade competition
The Giants are set to have a full senior netball program this year, while Melton South, which has had a strong netball program and six sides in the Ballarat Netball League, has joined the competition.
She said they wanted to grow and improve their competitions going forward.
“We are investing a significant amount of time and resources into umpiring and will be one of the first football netball leagues to have their 19 and under feature in the middle of the day’s play for our senior competition,” she said.
“This move will allow the RDFNL to take over the 19 and under umpires and allocate umpires from the senior league panel rather than club appointed.
“The 19 and under competition is the future of our competition and we are excited to see them better integrate with the senior program.”
The winners of the Netball Victoria community awards will be announced on December 5.
