TAC Cup football is poised to return to Hamilton in 2015 but Warrnambool is without a showcase under 18 state game fixture.
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North Ballarat Rebels will host Sandringham Dragons at Hamilton’s Melville Oval on Sunday, May 31.
It is the only south-west-based game in the TAC Cup draw, which was unveiled on Friday.
Rebels talent manager Phil Partington said the club was excited to return to Hamilton after a three-year break.
The club has hosted games in Warrnambool, Portland and Horsham in recent seasons.
Partington said the Rebels, whose region has expanded to include Corangamite Shire, eliminating Geelong Falcons’ connection to the south-west, would strive to host a match in Warrnambool next season.
“In our draw we don’t have a home game until round six and if we want to go to Warrnambool we’d rather it earlier in the season,” he said. “You don’t want to go to Warrnambool when it’s too wet. It’s the first year in six years we haven’t been to Warrnambool.”
Partington stressed the Reid Oval debacle in July when the Rebels hosted Geelong Falcons on a wet day played no role in Warrnambool missing out on a game in 2015. Falcons talent manager Michael Turner labelled Reid Oval “embarrassing” after the July 6 fixture, which was played after Warrnambool and District league club East Warrnambool hosted five games the day before.
Partington said that rain-impacted match “had no bearing on anything”. “We will continue to bring TAC Cup footy there in the future,” he said.
North Ballarat Rebels will open their 2015 season against Geelong Falcons at Kardinia Park on March 29.
Their second match is a Good Friday fixture against Bendigo Pioneers at Epsom Huntly Reserve. They’ve drawn Murray Bushrangers in country round on April 11 at Bendigo’s Queen Elizabeth Oval.
Geelong Falcons-Gippsland Power and Bendigo Pioneers-Dandenong Stingrays bookend the Rebels’ game as part of a bumper triple-header.
The Rebels’ first home game at Ballarat’s Eureka Stadium is not until round six. But the David Loader-coached side plays six of its final seven matches at home.
“To be honest, I don’t mind it that way,” Partington said. “Our boys do a mountain of travel in the year so the less travel late in the year, the better it is.”
The TAC Cup season consists of 17 home-and-away rounds starting with its metropolitan round on March 22 and finishing on August 29. The grand final is on Sunday, September 27.
justine.mc@fairfaxmedia.com.au
