Thursday, February 13, 2025

A league of their own

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AFL Victoria – which operates under the all-powerful AFL umbrella – is in the business of sport. 

Getting people to play it, and watch it. 

Only, AFL Victoria doesn’t want to play with anyone unless everything goes its way. If it doesn’t, AFL Victoria picks up its ball and goes home. 

And locks the door. 

If you have the temerity to criticise anything connected in any way with the league, look out. 

Earlier this year, The Bridge approached AFL controlled Central Murray and Golden Rivers league management to have results emailed in a format that wouldn’t take hours to process or cost hundreds of dollars a week to receive. 

For many years, it was a straightforward process; a weekly Excel spreadsheet would be sent around with each week’s results. 

This year, The Bridge requested the same results service for the 2024 competition, only to have our requests fall on deaf ears. Despite multiple attempts and the league providing results (netball) to other publications in the same format, our requests were ignored. 

To overcome the roadblock, The Bridge engaged an IT specialist who requested an API key to structure the results in a usable format. No surprise, no response was received. 

Appealing to league board members and the Central Vic manager, we were able to secure the provision of netball results from May 30 in the same format other publications had enjoyed. 

Recently, this paper ran an article critical of the performance of umpires in one game. 

The response by AFL Victoria’s Central Victorian office was immediate, expressing “deep disappointment and frustration” and alleging the article “stirred significant controversy and concern within our community, particularly among the umpiring group.” 

And then cut off access to sporting results. 

Protests were received by email but attempts by this paper to discuss this issue in person have been ignored. 

When The Bridge did email the Central Murray and Golden Rivers league manager Jessie Chesters requesting an official response to the refusal to provide the results other papers receive, she responded: “All results are available to the public on the below links, which can be found on our website.” 

The Bridge next submitted questions to the interim – and now permanent – AFL Central Vic general manager Cameron Tomlins, but no response was provided. 

Looking forward, The Bridge will be taking steps to permanently bypass this league of its own to provide our readers, the locals who make the whole game work, with local sports results about their teams. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper 25 July 2024

This article appeared in  The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 25 July 2024.

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For all the news from The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, go to https://www.thebridgenews.com.au/