Well-known league identity Ron Dellar has urged fellow Second Division clubs to support Group 4’s push to create a single competition, insisting “something has to be done” to address the First Division malaise.
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Group 4 wants to merge First Division with the much healthier Second Division and have a 15-team competition that would be broken into thirds at the end of the season based on table position and three separate finals series would be staged.
Dellar, co-coach Werris Creek, said: “We can’t keep going the way we’re going.
“The First Division is going down the hill.
“Something’s got to happen. We’ve got to give something a go.”
Dellar, who has coached Magpies teams in the First and Second divisions, said he had received positive feedback from clubs regarding the proposal.
He is optimistic the planned overhaul will happen, although any team that becomes collateral damage because of it would have his sympathies.
Upon announcing the proposal to The Northern Daily Leader this month, Group 4 president Mick Schmiedel said Second Division clubs Uralla, Bundarra and Bingara would likely have to move to Group 19.
Dellar said: “They don’t want to go back. They like it down here. Let’s why they’re here.”
Schmiedel had said discussions with clubs had begun and the response was favourable.
“At this stage most of the clubs seem to be on board with it,” he said.
“When reality kicks in, it may not be.”
Schmiedel urged clubs to remove the “blinkers” and embrace the possibilities the new competition would present for the game’s betterment. “For example, Manilla, who’s a small town, have a good backing from their local community,” he said. “Because they’d be in the one comp, competing against Norths, I think it would add some interest to the competition. “All the restrictions that we have there now … will be off the table.”
Schmiedel said the move would “free up players to actually go where they want”, countering the “argument we get every year – a bloke should be able to play where he wants”.