Footy fans attending the opening round Goulburn Valley League clashes were taken aback at the gate when they went to purchase a football record — in this case The GV League Weekender.
But there were none.
The league has scrapped the record in a cost saving exercise.
But is it good enough for a major football league to take this action?
I’ve been told it’s the only league in country football that now doesn’t have an official match day record.
In defence of his league GVL operations manager Brad Noonan said clubs were alerted to a possible removal of the record after the majority of clubs last year had revealed they threw away more than half the records they had received on match day.
He said the league would now produce a phone app where player numbers could be resourced and clubs would also get player lists from the league and a copy would be available at grounds on match day.
I think a cop-out for this disappointing situation is for the league to make a one-off professional publication of every team player numbers in the league, so there would be a heavy emphasis on the club’s to get their players’ numbers right, something clubs have never been good at from my long association with the GVL.
There is always going to be situations where there are late number changes, but it then should be up to the clubs to have them updated on a printout of player numbers and handed out at the games or the changes announced over the PA systems at the grounds.