By: Troy Swainston – Chief Executive Officer – Eastern Football League
Our junior girls and Deakin Uni Senior Women’s grand finals take place this weekend in football along with the Bendigo Bank Netball EFL divisions 4-7 deciders on Friday night and we wish all teams participating the best of luck.
This year saw a record 150 female football teams split across 22 competitions, with 117 teams coming from EFL clubs and 33 from AFL Outer East clubs. Female footy in the east has come a long way in such a short space of time. Female participation is having a huge positive impact on our clubs, and we encourage all clubs to invest time and resources into female participation through football and netball.
Our BJS Veterans Grand Final between Scoresby and Coldstream sees Scoresby going for back-to-back premierships. Scoresby finished undefeated on top of the ladder, but this will be the first time these two sides meet. In the Deakin Uni Eastern Region Women’s, The Basin finished on top and will take on South Croydon in the Division 1 Women’s Grand Final and Chirnside Park who transferred into the competition this season takes on the Whitehorse Suns in the Premier Division grand final. We expect there will be a big crowd at Lilydale on Sunday.
In our two other women’s divisions, North Ringwood takes on Park Orchards and Rowville will play the SBL Wolves at Mulgrave. All four teams are new to the competition this year so there will be two first-year premier teams come 5pm on Sunday. Given the growth in the competition and the lighting investments made by our councils, it provides us with the opportunity to review game-start times to maximise the opportunities for clubs and their supporters to attend. This year scheduling has been a massive challenge so to avoid conflict, night and twilight games will be necessary moving forward.
In our senior men’s competition, finals head into the second week for Division 1, 3 and 4. Our Premier and Division 2 senior first week of finals action kicks off Saturday with Balwyn playing Blackburn in the qualifying final at Bayswater Oval and Rowville playing South Croydon in the elimination final at Central Reserve. Vermont once again finished the season on top of the ladder and will be looking to go back-to-back in 2019.
In Division 1, last year’s premier, Doncaster East, takes on Croydon to determine who moves straight into the grand final, and on Sunday, Lilydale takes on Park Orchards in the sudden-death game.
In Division 2, last year’s premier, Boronia, takes on Ringwood – this game will be very interesting given the big win to Ringwood last week. In the knockout final in Division 2, Mitcham plays Heathmont after the Jets consolidated their place in the finals with a final-round win over Scoresby.
On Saturday, our first preliminary final takes place between Ferntree Gully and Waverley Blues in Division 3 at Jubilee Park. Ferntree Gully will go in as favourite but after last week’s overtime win the Blues will be full of confidence.
In the Division 4 preliminary final, we see Coldstream taking on Fairpark at Scoresby Recreation Reserve. This game will be an intriguing contest with little separating the two clubs with one win a piece, both teams recording comfortable wins at home.
It’s an exciting time of the year for the players, spectators and team officials to be involved in our great game. The EFL is proud of the way and the spirit in which our games are played. We have set a high benchmark in terms of conduct and behaviour of our clubs, players and spectators and we expect this to continue throughout the finals.
Good luck to all teams on the weekend and remember to tune into the Eastland Finals Match of the Round on 1377 SEN+ on Saturday and Sunday or watch the live stream via the EFL website.