Not so long ago an interleague clash would be one of the highlights of the country football season.
It would be a showpiece event, a chance to see the best players from each competition go head-to-head.
Bragging rights would be on the line and an answer to the question of ‘’which is the best country footy league going around?’’ could almost be answered.
Now though, on the eve of this year’s game between Goulburn Valley League and Ovens and Murray League, the occasion feels so far removed from what it once was.
The match feels like an afterthought, an inconvenience. An unwanted interruption to the home and away season, the result irrelevant and – lately – a foregone conclusion.
It should be so much more than that.
The spectacle is only as good as what people make it. And at the moment, it feels like nobody cares.
The lead-up to Saturday’s game has been, to put it bluntly, ordinary on the side of the GVL.
Firstly, there was confusion over who would coach the team.
In February, The Weekly Times named two people as coach, but six weeks later, the league announced someone else.
What a publication chooses to run isn’t the league’s fault, but the contrast in news early on isn’t exactly a great start.
Later, the GVL announced its squads less than two weeks before the game, naming players that had reportedly already said they were unavailable.
The team has trained together once before the game, while O&M has been training for weeks — in years gone past the GVL would conduct multiple training sessions.
Promotion of the game from the league itself has been lacklustre, with almost no content on its own social media channels.
Where are the countdowns to game day?
Where are photos from training?
Where is content from the team announcements?
How are fans supposed to get excited when the league isn’t exactly pumping it up?
Frankly, this just is not good enough.
The league needs to be far more organised ― squads, coaches, logistic and resources need to be organised much further in advance, rather than just pieced together at the last minute.
For the players, it is up to them to show the desire to want to represent the league.
To put their hand up to play so that the GVL can genuinely field its best side possible.
Otherwise, how can you expect people to get behind something that the league and players don’t seem to value themselves?
To their credit, the GVL and O&M deserve praise for keeping the interleague tradition alive as it has largely fallen by the wayside elsewhere in country football.
But even with the coveted Ash-Wilson Trophy up for grabs, the meaning of the occasion seems to be an afterthought.
It should mean so much more than this.
I am not trying to target anyone involved in interleague just for the sake of doing so.
Rather, I am trying to highlight the areas that need to be improved to help restore the occasion to its former glory.
Announce coaches early so they have the most time possible to plan and prepare for the game.
Name the squads early so players and the team actually have a chance to train together.
Give the side the best possible chance to win.
Put extra emphasis on the occasion, pump the game up and stoke the rivalry.
Make the game feel important, make it feel special.
Don’t just leave it as an afterthought.
Give the fans something to care about.
I want representative football and netball to continue and to succeed, I want it to be a great spectacle that people want to watch.
I want interleague to be the marquee fixture on the country football calendar once again.
At the moment, it isn’t.
Hopefully one day soon it will be.
Bransen Gibson is a sports reporter for The News.