The playing future of the new Kyneton Women’s Football Club remains up in the air with the club seeking legal advice as it fights to play this year.
The club, which is made up primarily of players who had played for Kyneton Football Netball Club, wants to play in the Riddell District Football Netball League in season 2025.
The new club, which has the nickname the Eagles, said its application to join the RDFL as a standalone team had been knocked back.
But the league says that there’s still a proposal on the table for those players to play this season.
Eagles president Nat Korinfsky said the league was discriminating against the team. The club has launched a petition calling for it to be allowed to play in the RDFNL as a standalone club which had more than 1000 signatures as of Thursday.
“They rejected our application with no opportunity to appeal or challenge,” she said. “They don’t like the Kyneton name [as there’s already one Kyneton club]. We don’t have a ground secured.
“They are concerned about the financial situation and not having enough volunteers.”
Korinfsky said three major sponsors had already been signed for the next three years which were dependent on the Kyneton name and had more volunteers willing to help than ever.
She said keeping the Kyneton name was important, as it represents the team’s location and side.
RDFNL chief executive Jordan Doyle said they had been working with the new club for a number of months to ensure there’s a place in the competition for the Eagles.
“The RDFNL has workshopped five different solutions with the KWFC committee and the committee has altered their approach on multiple occasions meaning that the process has been drawn out,” he said.
“The RDFNL is bound by the statement of rules written into the constitution and the club has not satisfied those rules and has also missed the AFL deadline for new clubs.
“The RDFNL has been working with other clubs for this team to have a place to play in 2025 and has agreed in writing to work with the KWFC committee on their new club proposal for 2026.
“The KWFC have a proposal in front of them with an option to participate in the RDFNL 2025 season which has been one of the five options workshopped with their committee.”
Korinfsky said they felt the league’s decision to knock back the club was hypocritical with the focus on making more opportunities for females to play sport.
She said leagues talk about removing boundaries to access sport and then don’t remove take action. The new club had also spoken to the Central Victoria and Ballarat leagues about joining them and were also knocked back.
“We just want to play sport like our male counterparts,” she said. “We’re going to keep fighting.
“Our players are eager to play community football and represent the Kyneton Eagles on the field, but without the opportunity to join the RDFNL senior women’s competition, we face the prospect of missing out on the opportunity to play sport in our local community.“
Doyle said the league remained committed to running a sustainable women’s competition and are an industry leader in how the competition has been run.
“The RDFNL is the only league in Victoria that films every match of the season, provides a full Premier Data subscription for every women’s team and plays matches across varying time slots to accommodate all club requests which for the majority of clubs has been to play double headers alongside their men’s teams to create an inclusive culture.
“The RDFNL is also working with Sunbury Cobaw Community Health on a gender equity and inclusion action plan, this is being finalised at the moment and the RDFNL will be only the second league in Victoria to have one in place.
“In addition, the RDFNL is one of only two leagues across all ten metropolitan leagues to have sign off by AFL Victoria on our women’s and girls charter. The RDFNL and our member clubs are striving to be leaders among the community for diversity and inclusion.“
