THE Warrnambool and District Football Netball League would welcome talks about resuming its interleague involvement.
League president Justin Balmer said playing interleague would be a “major change” for the WDFNL, but he was open to suggestions about how it could happen.
Balmer’s verdict comes after Hampden league vice-president Peter Manoel floated an idea for the HFNL and WDFNL to play a curtain-raising clash ahead of the Hampden-Sunraysia interleague match in 2013.
The curtain-raiser is dependent on Sunraysia not fielding an under 18 side for the match, which is tentatively — but not definitely — scheduled for a Hampden league venue.
Balmer said he was happy to join the interleague debate, but was disappointed Manoel had not approached him with the idea.
“For the district league to be involved would be a major change for us,” he said.
“The only interleague we have is at under 16s and under 14s, we don’t have any senior interleague. He should’ve at least done us the courtesy of running it past us. To read the paper on Wednesday morning stunned me.”
Balmer said the decision to play interleague rested with the WDFNL’s 12 clubs.
“They would have to come to us about it, and we would talk to our clubs,” he said.
“We’d obviously involve our clubs because it’d be a significant change to what we have.
“We have one break in the season, which would be the long weekend in June. The Hampden league has two or three breaks, so we’d have to extend our season.
“There are plenty of things to be discussed.”
Balmer said he did not have a personal opinion on the issue. He said inserting a second break into the season was not unfathomable.
The Sunraysia Football League said yesterday it was too early to say whether it would field an under 18 team against Hampden in 2013.
Administrator Peter Walker said the fixture was not finalised, and said the league had yet to discuss its involvement.
