SFNL Division 1 2024 discussion

[Blood Stained Angels]

Along with St Paul’s who are offering plenty $$

Anastasiou will be a great pick-up for the whole season.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

So where does this fit the All Stars in the scheme of things?
Some of us have locked away the top 2 from last year, Springy, Narre and St Paul’s as probably the top 5…then still have EB and Cranny (who are always consistent as well). Will make for an interesting season.
Port Colts hit and miss may battle it out for relegation with the remaining 2 or could be right up there…bit of X factor associated with them. It’s time for Bentleigh to step up based on strong depth and junior program, enough of being in the bottom couple!

It’s shaping as a very strong and tight division which is awesome to see.

The league has really become the place for South Eastern clubs too with another starting at Clyde… I know they are a few years off divisional football. But with Narre, Cranbourne and Doveton too, Narre South, Berwick Springs in the lower divs plus Hampton Park.

Given all these local clubs I am sure that Berwick and Beaconsfield will pop the question at some stage, their move to Eastern has not been a good one, over the next five-ish years I can see a proposal for a 12-team D1 with Berwick and Beacy.

 

[bedford]

It’s shaping as a very strong and tight division which is awesome to see.

The league has really become the place for South Eastern clubs too with another starting at Clyde… I know they are a few years off divisional football. But with Narre, Cranbourne and Doveton too, Narre South, Berwick Springs in the lower divs plus Hampton Park.

Given all these local clubs I am sure that Berwick and Beaconsfield will pop the question at some stage, their move to Eastern has not been a good one, over the next five-ish years I can see a proposal for a 12-team D1 with Berwick and Beacy.

Not the SFL anymore

 

[Peta Deutschland]

Not the SFL anymore

What do think we should call it Bedford?


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[Bunk Moreland]

Not the SFL anymore

True really but expansion was needed. The league was boxed in from all angles and being picked off by the EFL, VAFA, MPFNL. Down to three divs from five and they were picking at its bones. Sometimes offence is the best defence so they needed to go ahead and get into the outer suburbs, it appears they have done that successfully over the past couple of years now. They should be aggressive in going after EFL and MPFNL clubs in the southern region.

 

[Peta Deutschland]

True really but expansion was needed. The league was boxed in from all angles and being picked off by the EFL, VAFA, MPFNL. Down to three divs from five and they were picking at its bones. Sometimes offence is the best defence so they needed to go ahead and get into the outer suburbs, it appears they have done that successfully over the past couple of years now. They should be aggressive in going after EFL and MPFNL clubs in the southern region.

I think it’s coming. Competition is on an upwards trajectory and expansion and improvement is league HQ’s main priority.
Few problematic clubs the league has to deal with but I imagine that’s fairly consistent with most leagues across the state and city.
Could see a few VAFA clubs begin to make the move next


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[bedford]

I think it’s coming. Competition is on an upwards trajectory and expansion and improvement is league HQ’s main priority.
Few problematic clubs the league has to deal with but I imagine that’s fairly consistent with most leagues across the state and city.
Could see a few VAFA clubs begin to make the move next


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Footy Southern Bayside , East based clubs can go back there

 

[Big buzz]

Footy Southern Bayside , East based clubs can go back there

Sorry m8 but these clubs all have good grounds and facilities and makes the competition better and as you can see more clubs want to come in now and more players are happy to play in the sfnl as well don’t understand why you are so against having them in the sfnl plus most of these clubs have good support base that follow their club and spend money and come in for a drink afterwards which is more than I can say for a few of the bayside clubs iv come across over the years

 

[bedford]

Sorry m8 but these clubs all have good grounds and facilities and makes the competition better and as you can see more clubs want to come in now and more players are happy to play in the sfnl as well don’t understand why you are so against having them in the sfnl plus most of these clubs have good support base that follow their club and spend money and come in for a drink afterwards which is more than I can say for a few of the bayside clubs iv come across over the years

Each to their own m8

 

[Blood Stained Angels]

I think it’s coming. Competition is on an upwards trajectory and expansion and improvement is league HQ’s main priority.
Few problematic clubs the league has to deal with but I imagine that’s fairly consistent with most leagues across the state and city.
Could see a few VAFA clubs begin to make the move next


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That's all fine in theory, but you don't need a situation whereby travelling for an hour to play a game of footy becomes the norm. That's one of the reason why allot of VAFA players have jumped to the SFNL as it provides a good and improving standard of footy and its less travel.

 

[Peta Deutschland]

That's all fine in theory, but you don't need a situation whereby travelling for an hour to play a game of footy becomes the norm. That's one of the reason why allot of VAFA players have jumped to the SFNL as it provides a good and improving standard of footy and its less travel.

It’s currently 1hr and 10mins from Port Melbourne to Narre on a Friday afternoon on a long weekend.
They will be fine.


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[Big buzz]

It’s currently 1hr and 10mins from Port Melbourne to Narre on a Friday afternoon on a long weekend.
They will be fine.


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Yes I agree we have a appartment in South Melbourne and live in Narre it takes 40 minutes at the most on weekends

 

[Big buzz]

That's all fine in theory, but you don't need a situation whereby travelling for an hour to play a game of footy becomes the norm. That's one of the reason why allot of VAFA players have jumped to the SFNL as it provides a good and improving standard of footy and its less travel.

It wouldn’t be the norm maybe a couple of times a year big deal i think it’s good going to different areas to play with in a hour now and then and if that is the case Frankston and south Mornington would also be gone as there the same distance or further than port to Narre and it’s more travelling for the sides out the south east for them than the bayside sides and there not complaining at all

 

[Bunk Moreland]

An inner suburban footy league in the southern or bayside areas would struggle. Kind of like what happened to the SFL 2000-2020 ish.

Footy is played by young people, and there just isn’t enough of them in these areas. So the quality of the footy drops off, the better players go looking for a better standard, which means it drops further, and clubs losing their better players look to other leagues in order to try to retain their players. It started with Noble Park for the SFL.

For the SFNL you also have the VAFA which has a chokehold on young footballers who go to school in the area.

If you want a footy league to thrive you have to keep pushing into the younger areas. The SFNL have this opportunity with the outer south-east and have taken it now. The south-east has been an enormous growth area and continues to be, in a way the SFNL is fortunate the clubs out that way as a group were so dysfunctional and never got their their shit together with their own big league. They went to the MPFNL, who never wanted them, they went to the YVMDFL which was a complete shemozzle of a merger. Now they’re by and large going to the SFNL which seems a much better move, they have some critical mass now with a number of local rivals and there’s four divisions to find a good level of competitiveness.

The inner southern clubs will get dragged along for the ride and this is good for them, it gives the league a high standard which will ensure they can attract and retain quality players.

The distances aren’t that big, if I’m the SFNL I’d be saying anything south of the Monash / Princes Freeway is us and we should be looking to push into it.

 

[bedford]

Good get by the allstars

 

[Wild Thing]

Good get by the allstars

Reid?

 

[South of the Yarra]

In the case of my club our committee at the time had nothing against any club having juniors and refused to support it.
With St Pauls having 19's and Glen Eiras stolen generation now being overage i wonder where they will get players . The one thing it has done has made other clubs better like Murrumbeena

Stolen generation?

 

[Mr north man]

Stolen generation?

Well you think a club like Glen Eira would join Southern with all the players there got maybe they will join it once there new pavilion is built?
Same goes for Ormond and Elsternwick.

 

[South of the Yarra]

I was just querying why they are called Stolen Generation? I know nothing about this league.

 

[bedford]

Well you think a club like Glen Eira would join Southern with all the players there got maybe they will join it once there new pavilion is built?
Same goes for Ormond and Elsternwick.

What pavilion

 

[Jane Doe]

I was just querying why they are called Stolen Generation? I know nothing about this league.

Jumping at shadows bud.

 

[South of the Yarra]

Jumping at shadows bud.

Not jumping at shadows at all. As a Stolen Generation Aboriginal I am intrigued to the label Stolen Generation for a football team. Not saying it is right, not saying it is wrong just intrigued about how the label came about.

 

[Mr north man]

What pavilion

Apparently it was advertised in the Tenders section of Saturday Age plus new cycling track going in as well

 

[Boo boy]

SFNL DIV 1 2025
Bentleigh
Cheltenham
Cranbourne
Dingley
East Brighton
Murrumbeena
Narre Warren
Port Melbourne Colts
Springvale Districts
St Paul's McKinnon

Team Snapshots

Cheltenham - will be bloody strong again. Couldn't really translate their regular season to finals, beating Dingley by a combined 3 points, but got the job done where it mattered. Holding on to Lonie, which is a massive result, but will lose a lot of players to VFL (Edwards, Lai x 2, McComb) in addition to Johnson and Moran already there. Have the depth to cover them, and you'd think they will recruit a bit, still the benchmark.

Dingley - Ridiculously unlucky to not beat Cheltenham at any point during the season, though they have shown their best is certainly good enough. Apparently bringing in Stuart Wines (Div 3 league B+F) to continue the St Bede's reunion, need to hold on to Lewis (who will surely be playing more VFL football you'd think) and TDL up forward, as both are absolute stars. It'll be interesting to see if Lachie Lamble plays for them next year, his pace on the wing could be a wildcard for them. Will be up and around it again.

St Paul's - Will probably regress a tad due to strength of comp, but have an excellent spine, with the best key forwards in the comp (O'Toole and Kreymborg) and gamebreakers in the midfield (Beveridge and O'Brien - returning from an ACL allegedly) to compliment the rest of their lineup, which is a well drilled unit. Is there the potential to recruit ex-st peter's junior Jarryd Lyons?

Springvale - Sketcher in is absolutely huge, he'll easily be a top 5 player in the competition, and gives them the gamebreaker they have been crying out for with Shem off the park and Wetering out of form/injured. Might be able to get a couple more Noble boys down (Kyle Martin??) , they bat very deep but probably still after a few more top end players (In addition to Arms, Shak and Helmore), especially down back, another superbly coached side.

Cranbourne - New coach coming in, which will be interesting, expect them to be around the mark again. Sorely missed Holt and Dickson this season, but Roscoe ascended to a freakish level once he built up match fitness. Need to recruit some firepower up forward and probably another couple of mids to support Roscoe, another team who don't really have any weak links but lacking the cream of the crop.

East Brighton - Their best this season was scintillating, which comes off the back of an embarrassment of riches in the midfield, which will only get stronger next season (Love-Linay x 2, Downie, Dessent, Hutchison, Semmell, Cochrane). The elder Love-Linay was an absolute star before going down with an ACL in late 2022 and does the defensive grunt work needed in there, Dessent meant to be an absolute topliner too. Corp and Lamb are a ridiculously good duo up forward, but their bottom-end players are their Achilles heel, especially in the defensive half, will surely push again for finals though.

Port - Similar to East Brighton in that their stars are superb, but a lack of depth lets them down. Unsure if the ex AFL guys will stick around, which is probably for the best. I think their season swings on Chan Hargraves, if he's available, they are a much better side as he is a colossus up forward and provides opportunities for gun smalls Clarke and Soylemez to crumb. Need defensive help desperately however.

Bentleigh - Probably my favourites for relegation, have dominated U19s for the last few years but are yet to reap the rewards in their senior side. Changing coaches is an interesting move, but they need to get the most out of their young talent or it could be a long year at Arthur Street, will be much better than Chelsea Heights and Mordialloc this past season.

Murrumbeena - After 4 premierships this year, Beena finally ascend to Div 1, with the club on a great trajectory. Will need to recruit a bit to be extremely competitive, but the senior side has great depth, with a bunch of gun U19s coming through that are probably up to D1 standard. Have two good keys (Elton and Tolongs), but will need to recruit another gun mid to support Pollard and Michael, some help defensively and another small forward to replace Dareo Rogers - who seems to be heading to the VFL. They should consolidate in D1 this season, have one of the best home ground advantages in the competition which will help immensely.

Narre - the great unknown, but a damned good side from all accounts, many former juniors apparently returning. Should be attempting to win a premiership, a la 2022 Cranbourne, which is 100% doable given the best Outer East sides are probably in the same stratosphere as SFNL top liners. A great inclusion for the league which should see the standard skyrocket further.

Way too early predicted ladder
Chelt
Dingley
Narre
Springy
EB
St Paul's
Cranbourne
Port
Beena
Bentleigh

Bentleigh have been cautious in their approach and quite rightly. They nearly went out of existence 24 years ago. They had a benefactor who saved them. 24 years ago they had no Juniors and fumbling around in D4 of the Ammos. They will get the balance of youth & experience right, then watch out. The problem for Bentleigh and clubs like Bentleigh that do the hard yards in promoting Junior football, is that they leave themselves open to clubs with fat wallets pinching their recruits, and then these kids start their careers as mercenaries jumping from club to club.

 

[Boo boy]

I read somewhere that the League was looking at 2 up and 2 down. If they did this next season it would be an incredible competition as every game would become a final towards the end of the season. Div 2 will be strong which is crucial to having a successful competition.