The Batemans Bay Seahawks’ application to join the Sapphire Coast AFL (SCAFL) for the 2018 season has been rejected by the SCAFL board.
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Club President Arlo Ireland said the Seahawks senior grades were the main sticking point.
“They want a whole club approach,” he said. “They’d like us to bring the two senior grades into the SCAFL as well.
“Unfortunately that’s not an option for us because we have so many players in Canberra. If we did move our seniors, we’d lose up to 30 players from the club.”
Ireland said the club would lodge an appeal through the AFL NSW/ACT, but doesn’t see a way its juniors would be playing outside the Shoalhaven next season.
“It’s hard to believe that we’d get a different result,” he said. “We appealed the same decision at the start of the year, and we were advised that time frames were the main reason we were rejected at that stage.”
“The really disappointing thing for us is that we won’t have the opportunity to start a woman’s side for next year.”
Despite the setback, the club is moving forward with preparations for next year.
“We’ve already secured more players for the U17s and U15s where we were short last season,” Mr Ireland said.
“We’ll definitely have those two teams next year, and we’re doing a local drive to try and get some new players at the club, both male and female.”
