2023 fixture and Interleague announcements
The Bendigo Football Netball League can confirm the season 2023 fixture, along with Interleague and representative team participation intentions for the upcoming season.
Following the initial fixture release late last year, clubs were provided an extended opportunity to identify and negotiate possible scheduling changes.
Despite ongoing positive discussions with the Gippsland League, unfortunately both leagues have mutually agreed to defer a return to Interleague participation for one further season, and we thank Gippsland for their interest and support. Whilst disappointed, both leagues hold representative competition in high regard and remain fully committed to reviving Interleague participation in a sustainable manner for leagues and volunteers, that generates appropriate local community interest and opportunities for participants to compete at the highest standard competition possible.
As part of the ongoing discussions regarding the future of Interleague, several exciting concepts have since been proposed to refresh and enhance the regular representative program, which would be driven directly by regional major leagues. In conjunction, the BFNL will continue to work closely with other like-minded major leagues during the 2023 season with an intent to make significant announcements regarding future regional Interleague competition.
The BFNL can however confirm the participation of 17 & Under and Open representative netball teams in the 2023 Netball Victoria Association Championships, to continue to grow the great success of our 2022 representative netball program and can now announce the coaches appointed to lead our talented teams.
The BFNL are excited to welcome back returning 2022 season 17 & under representative team co-coaches Nicole Donnellon and Sharni McPherson, to guide the team who will compete in the Netball Victoria Association Championships, after successfully leading the BFNL team to the Association Championships Finals in season 2022.
Nicole and Sharni bring a wealth of netball knowledge and growing levels of experience and success at BFNL, State, and regional Academy levels, and will again mentor and develop the brightest BFNL netball talent.
The BFNL are also thrilled to announce the recent re-appointment of Open Netball Head Coach Jayden Cowling, who holds an extraordinary coaching and playing record at BFNL, State, and National level. Likewise, Jayden led the BFNL Open netball team to ultimately finish runners up overall at the 2022 Netball Victoria Association Championships Finals, before also leading the Kangaroo Flat A-Grade netball team to finish season 2022 as runners-up.
Further announcements regarding selection trials, assistant coaches, and schedules will be announced in due course.
Given the decision regarding Interleague participation, the BFNL can also confirm the introduction of a second season general bye for season 2023. The league supported retuning to a concept of a split round in place of the initially scheduled Interleague weekend in May, however given the limited interest of clubs have opted for a full league general bye on the weekend of May 20th. This, is in addition to the regular league general bye on the 1st of July during school holidays, provides an extra opportunity for volunteers, players, and families combined to take a well-earned break.
Round 1 will commence on the 15th of April, the weekend after Easter, however depending on future season structure and dates the league in conjunction with clubs fully intend to return to fixturing Easter matches in 2024 which have become a greatly anticipated and highly successful feature of regular BFNL fixturing.
Confirmed 2023 fixtures have now been uploaded online to the relevant football and netball databases, PlayHQ and Netball Connect.
Download 2023 BFNL fixtures here:
