WHILE very few people in the local community are sick and tired of district football, it’s worth taking stock of where it sits on the calendar.
That was Golden Rivers Football League chief executive officer Keith den Houting’s response last week to John Pattison’s call for a re-think on how much emphasis is placed on footy each year.
In an article titled “Paying A High Price For Sporting Success” (The Northern Times, last Tuesday), Pattison suggested that football was extending its reach to now cover 10 months of every year, with a resulting drain on volunteers and players’ time. He added that early pre-season training also affected participation in other summer sports such as cricket and tennis in a negative way.
Den Houting said that Pattison certainly had some “fascinating” and “thought-provoking” points to make, and he would love to have further dialogue with GRFL club personnel on the health of the sport.
But footy was far from being a self-destructive force in towns across the region.
“Very few people say we’re sick of footy,” said den Houting on Friday.
“But by the end we’re looking for a break, but then we can’t wait for the start of the new season. I look forward to the season each year. Normally I’m still eagerly anticipating the footy, but also [this summer] the cricket against India.”
Instead of blaming football as the reason behind other sporting difficulties, den Houting agreed that it should be the aim of administrators to ensure there are enough people to oversee and play in every sport throughout the year.
“Get it organised in the community, get it right and it’s very worthwhile to pursue,” he said.
“What’s happening in Kerang at the moment is we’re all doing our own thing – so someone needs to take the lead and organise the start of cricket and tennis [in relation to footy season] and I think the town would be better off. But that’s not saying I’m volunteering for that job!”
Den Houting noted the recent example of Kerang’s cricket club being forced to drop back to fielding a stand-alone side in the Northern District B grade competition.
“That really perplexes me, but I don’t think you can put that down to football,” he said.
“And a lot of clubs have that same problem [of player numbers] in football. That’s a reality...Cricket is a more individual sport and Scott [Harry, fellow GRFL board member gave that idea as well – that people go to cricket on their own, not with the family like the footy.”
With regard to Pattison’s request for football clubs to consider delaying pre-season training until the new year, possibly even until February, den Houting said the idea might have merit, but would be hard to monitor across an entire league.
“How would the board supervise it?” he said.
“Clubs have got to make that decision.”
If he was a young player now, den Houting said he would choose to not be involved with November pre-season training at a club. He added that individuals could always stay fit as they wished until January.
Finally, den Houting tackled Pattison’s reference to the amount of stress possibly being placed on club volunteers.
“The other idea that we’re killing footy by demanding too much time on volunteers... [well] they tend to change every couple of years,” he said.
“You get new people, and that’s not too bad...Most people in football are willing to help, and if you took them out of that role they’d feel they’re losing part of their lives.”
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