The future of the Gisborne Football Netball Club will become a bit clearer in the next couple of weeks.
As reported by Star Weekly, the club is considering moving its senior men’s football and its senior netball programs to the Ballarat Football Netball League from next season.
The club’s senior sides currently play in the Bendigo league.
The Bulldogs announced that it would be looking to have a special general meeting on August 21 to vote on the club’s future.
“The purpose of the special general meeting is to consider affiliation with the Ballarat Football Netball League in 2026 should members of this league agree to the admission of the GFNC at their meeting on August 14,” the club said on social media.
The meeting is for financial GFNC members only, both playing and non-playing.
Bulldogs president Tony Brancatisano previously said they had concerns over the standard of the competition.
“The Bendigo league doesn’t seem to be getting any better, so we need to look at the future of the club for the next five years,” he said.
“We want to have a proper look at it.”
Brancatisano said they had concerns about the standard dropping, with the competition having lost Kyneton and Maryborough from the competition in recent years.
He said the competition wasn’t balanced with some teams playing each other three times saying that a premier competition should have 10 teams.
Broadford is aiming to field sides next year.
There had been talk about Moama joining the competition in 2027, which Brancatisano said was too far for the club to travel, which they have expressed to the league.
One of the biggest pluses for the move to the Ballarat competition, was playing against the likes of the Sunbury Lions, Bacchus Marsh, Darley and Melton.
Brancatisano said their biggest crowd of the year was the annual practice match with the Sunbury Lions.
“There are four sides around us,” he said. “Financially it would be better for us in the Ballarat competition.
“We will take everything into consideration, as it’s not black and white.”
