By RUSSELL BENNETT
AFTER just one season of its two-division structure, the Ellinbank and District Football League (EDFL) has reverted to its single tier, 15-club competition.
The league’s board of management made the decision last week to scrap the much-maligned two-division format that was made up of seven teams (such as Cora Lynn, Kooweerup, Nar Nar Goon and Garfield) in the West, and eight in the East.
The News understands the 15-team structure is a way of safeguarding the league in case it can’t attract new clubs to make the switch from neighbouring competitions in the near future, and – in fact – loses some of their own.
The seven-club West simply wouldn’t be workable if clubs were to leave.
Local opinion about the move back to a single-division structure is largely split along East-West lines.
Fans out East, and seemingly most of those involved at clubland, would have preferred to keep the two-division system to give the likes of the struggling Nyora, Poowong and Nilma Darnum more of a chance of winning matches regularly in their own competition.
A key difference in the 15-team structure moving forward, though – as opposed to the way it operated prior to the 2014 season – is that there will be a final eight instead of the six-team finals.
EDFL manager and secretary Ken Moore said the league was looking at a seeded draw too, acknowledging that some struggling clubs were adversely affected this year by having to play the top sides three times.
