This Saturday the Southern Football Netball League will host Ellinbank & District Football League in the 2016 WorkSafe AFL Victoria Community Championships at a new state-of-the-art facility at Lyndhurst.
The SFNL’s best footballers will lock horns with the EDFL in separate Senior and Under 18 interleague matches on the vast expanses of Marriott Waters Reserve, while the leagues’ A-Grade, B-Grade and Under 19 netballers will do battle on the adjacent netball courts.
This is the first time senior interleague matches will be staged at the brand new purpose-built facility, which is the home of the SFNL’s newest senior club, Lyndhurst Lightning.
The venue allows for both football and netball representative matches to be staged simultaneously, and its location represents one of the Southern League’s biggest growth corridors.
SFNL CEO David Cannizzo said the league was excited to be hosting both football and netball interleague clashes for the first time, and added that the new venue would provide a level of professionalism that the league are looking for.
“Our focus over the last three years has been to improve the professionalism and development experience of the entire representative program,” Cannizzo said.
“This has taken another positive step forward this year with training based out of Bentleigh Reserve, which is a quality Division 1 venue, and playing at Lyndhurst makes a lot of sense geographically, considering our opposition is from the East.
“We are very grateful to AFL Victoria for providing the SFNL hosting rights and we look forward to putting on a wonderful show, not just on the field and court, but off them as well.
“The SFNL are big supporters of representative football and netball, and strongly endorse the new interleague model facilitated as the WorkSafe AFL Victoria Community Championships.”
SFNL partner Westfield Fountain Gate are also getting behind the event and are helping to create a family-friendly atmosphere by offering free face painting and balloon modeling for the kids throughout the day.
The Under 19s launch the first interleague netball game at 10:00am, with B Grade and A Grade matches to follow, while the Under 18 boys kick off the interleague footy action at midday.
The opening bounce of the senior football clash is at 2:35pm.
GAME START TIMES
Senior Football: 2:30pm
Under 18 Football: 12:00pm
A Grade Netball: 1:00pm
B Grade Netball: 11:30am
Under 19 Netball: 10:00am
ADMISSION
Adults: $10
Concession: $5
Kids under 16: Free
Follow live at sfnllive.com.au.
Kids can enjoy FREE face painting (12:00pm to 4:00pm) and balloon modeling (11:00am to 2:00pm) thanks to Westfield Fountain Gate.
