By: Troy Swainston – Chief Executive Officer – Eastern Football League
As we head into the back of the season, we must take this opportunity to thank our wonderful sponsors; naming rights and major sponsor Eastland, major community partner Bendigo Bank and our other major sponsors Channel 9, BJS Insurance Brokers, Carsales, Deakin University, Trojan, Yarra Valley Water, 1116 SEN and all of our support sponsors.
Sponsors are critical to ensuring football participation costs remain low and affordable for clubs and participants.
Halfway through the season it’s timely to reflect on the season so far. Our media partner LKLM Media and Sportscast have taken our game-day coverage to the next level with game day tagging, live streaming of the match of the round and game day replays. Did you know that the Rowville Hawks kick after the siren video has been viewed by 85k people and reached 125k people? I wonder how many times Tom Lockman has watched that video…
We are connecting with new EFL fans everyday as our social media channels grow. With 18k Facebook fans, 6.1k Twitter followers, 5.8k Instagram followers and 36k Team App members, our reach is increasing weekly. Our photography partner Field of View Sports Photography and Davis Harrigan are providing awesome coverage across the entire League. Our media team continues to set the benchmark in local football with the pre and post-game, and match of the round call on SEN 1377+, weekly podcast EFL Insight and the Sunday morning show, EFL Sunday. If you haven’t already, tune in for a great call from the team who know all the clubs and players across the EFL.
The new five-division structure has seen an immediate and significant increase in competitive games. In Premier Division, reigning premier Vermont sits on top of the ladder with just one loss, with Rowville and Balwyn the big improvers on last year. Reigning premier Doncaster East holds down top spot in Division 1, with Croydon building on last year’s good finish to the season sitting two games clear of third in second place. There is just one game separating fifth and 10th on the ladder in what is the most even division. The relegation and finals battle is likely to go down to the wire.
In Division 2, Ringwood after losing its first two games followed by a draw, has now won six in a row to sit on top of the ladder. Mitcham, Templestowe and Heathmont are all sitting on six wins and three losses. South Belgrave has dominated Division 3 and with a percentage of 392% are going to be tough to beat. Whitehorse, Waverley Blues and Donvale look like they will fight it out for the final position in the top four.
In Division 4, East Burwood survived a scare from Fairpark last weekend to remain unbeaten. Coldstream, Surrey Park, Silvan and Forest Hill will slug it out for the last two finals positions. Whichever way the ladder finishes, we will have some clubs playing finals for first time in many seasons which is a great story. Nunawading has won two games this season and Croydon North-MLOC will be pushing hard to get their first victory in the competition on the run home.
In our Deakin University Eastern Region Women’s Premier Division, Chirnside Park, after switching across from South East remains undefeated on top of the ladder, with our other new team, Whitehorse Suns, sitting second. One game separates Vermont in sixth place and the Whitehorse Suns in second place. In Division 1, South Croydon is setting the pace unbeaten after seven rounds with The Basin second on the ladder with just the one loss. In the North Division, new teams North Ringwood and Park Orchards hold down the two top spots whilst in the South Division new teams Rowville, Ferntree Gully and SBL Wolves hold down the top three spots on the ladder.
Good luck to all teams on the weekend and remember to tune in to our match of the round on 1377 SEN+ or watch the live stream via the EFL website.
