SENIOR COMPETITIONS UPDATE

Divisions Two, Three and Four of the Eastern Football Netball League Senior Men’s will return this weekend, along with all divisions of Senior Women’s and Veterans (Men’s).

Senior Men’s Premier Division and Division One along with Women’s Veterans will resume on August 7.

After this extensive process, which included consultation with every member club by division, the Eastern Football Netball League can announce the finalised make-up of the remainder of the 2021 season.

The season will continue to work towards the original finish dates, with the league wary of other commitments and plans those members of the EFNL community may have, along with scheduled seasonal council ground works and the potential of further lockdowns which may halt the season.  Completing a season with finals will be no small achievement given the challenges faced this year from lockdowns and missing the entire 2020 season.

Finals will be played in all competitions, with clubs agreeing to play them at the expense of Home and Away fixtures. This means that there will be no attempts to make-up any further cancelled rounds this year.

To ensure finals could be played, some Home and Away rounds have been sacrificed. The rounds that remain on the fixture list for each competition can be found below;

Men’s:

Premier – Rounds 19(7), 20(8), 13 and 14

Division One – Rounds 17, 18, 19(8) and 20(9)

Division Two – Rounds 16, 14 and 15

Division Three – Rounds 16, 17, 18, 14 and 15

Division Four – Rounds 15, 7, 13 and 14

Women’s:

Premier – Rounds 14, 8 and 12

Division One – Rounds 14, 8 and 12

Division Two – Rounds 14, 8 and 12

Division Three – Rounds 14, 8 and 12

Veterans:

Men’s – Rounds 9 (August 1) and 5 (August 15)

Women’s – Mooroolbark v Chirnside Park (August 7) and Mooroolbark v Blackburn (August 14)

In all divisions outside of the Men’s Premier, any missed round will be removed from the fixture and sides will move on to the next fixtured round the following week.

In Premier Division a focus has been placed on ensuring all sides play each other at least once, this competition will have the least games played come season end.

Original Rounds 7 and 8 will take precedence and will be played first (floating fixture).

The Finals Dates and Systems for each competition/division can be found below;

Men’s:

Premier – Three Week Top Six

Semi Finals (September 4^th-5^th)

3^rd v 6^th and 4^th v 5^th      

Preliminary Finals (September 11^th – 12^th)

1^st v Winner of 4^th v 5th and 2^nd v Winner of 3^rd v 6^th

Grand Final (September 18^th)       

Division One – Knockout Top Four

Semi Finals (September 4^th – 5^th)

1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd

Grand Final (September 11^th)

Division Two – Knockout Top Four

Semi Finals (August 21^st – 22^nd)

1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd

Grand Final (August 28^th)

Division Three – Knockout Top Four

Semi Finals (September 4^th – 5^th)

1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd

Grand Final (September 12^th)

Division Four – Knockout Top Four

Semi Finals (August 28^th – 29^th)

1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd

Grand Final (September 4^th)

Women’s:

Premier – Knockout Top Four

Semi Finals (August 21^st – 22^nd)

1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd

Grand Final (August 28^th)

Division One – Knockout Top Four

Semi Finals (August 21^st – 22^nd)

1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd

Grand Final (August 28^th)

Division Two – Knockout Top Four

Semi Finals (August 21^st – 22^nd)

1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd

Grand Final (August 28^th)

Division Three – Knockout Top Four

Semi Finals (August 21^st – 22^nd)

1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd

Grand Final (August 28^th)

Veterans:

Men’s – Top Two

Grand Final (August 29^th)

1^st v 2^nd

Women’s – Top Two

Grand Final (August 28^th)

1^st v 2^nd

The League is still waiting on Netball Victoria to release their Return to Play guidelines before confirming if netball can return this Friday night.

If competition were to resume this Friday – July 30 – the following Rounds will be played prior to finals.

Premier – Division Three – Rounds 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18

Division Four – Division Seven – Rounds 14, 15, 16 and 17

If play is not to resume this weekend, round 14 will be removed from the current fixture.

Netball will also run with a two week, top four finals structure:

Premier – Division Three

Semi Finals (September 3^rd)

1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd

Grand Final (September 10^th)

Division Four – Division Seven

Semi Finals (August 27th)

1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd

Grand Final (September 3rd)

Netball teams who do not make finals will play an extra game in week one of the finals series to maximise the amount of netball played by all participants in this interrupted season.

These will be fixtured as follows.

Netball

5^th v 6^th

7^th v 8^th

9^th v 10^th

11^th v 12^th

13^th v 14^th

Divisions with an uneven number of games played, such as the Deakin University Women’s Division One or the Eastland Men’s Premier Division, will be decided by Match Ratio.

Match Ratio is a system where teams are separated by the percentage of games won rather than total wins.

For example, if Team A has played 10 games and won five, their win percentage would be 50%, and if Team B has played five games and won three, they would have a win percentage of 60% and be ranked higher on the ladder than Team A – despite winning less games.

In Divisions with an even number of games played, ladders will be deciphered by the usual means.