Sport
17 February, 2024
Holt quits commission - questions on future structure
LEON Holt has walked from the AFL Central Victoria commission after 12 years with a call for football hierarchy to listen more to grassroots administrators. Holt has also expressed frustration that AFL Central Victoria has been reduced to a dispute...
LEON Holt has walked from the AFL Central Victoria commission after 12 years with a call for football hierarchy to listen more to grassroots administrators.
Holt has also expressed frustration that AFL Central Victoria has been reduced to a dispute resolution body.
And he doubts that the AFL will continue with the current commission structure with just four regions in Victoria still operating under the model.
Holt, a former North Central league president and Wedderburn player and official, was an original appointment to the commission 12 years ago and has already served one three-year term more than allowed.
“There’s only four independent commissions left out of the original 13,” Holt said in an exclusive interview with the Loddon Herald.
“I think the AFL will be looking at a different model - country councils - to take on the burden of finances and rules.
“But after 12 years, I’m not sure it will be to the advantage of commoners being taken notice of.”
Holt said volunteers were the core of country community football.
“If we hand over volunteers to people in paid positions ... just because they are paid and have a university degree doesn’t mean that they have a wealth of knowledge,” Holt said.
“We have to ask what benefit there will be (from AFL initiatives) for clubs like Wedderburn or Inglewood. What seems to matter to the AFL is that Auskick is about getting kids to follow AFL clubs and not getting them to keep playing with local clubs.
“We should be here to help clubs that already exist.”
He said the AFL had good initiatives in country football with problems arising “when they think they know everything”.
Holt said the role of AFL Central Victoria commissioners had become mainly about dispute resolution.
“And I think (as a result) we have lost the confidence of some leagues ... who are not looking at football for the greater good but only their own paddock,” he said.
AFL Central Victoria copped criticism from the Heathcote league last year over plans that may have restructured leagues across the region.
The commission was also drawn in to give final adjudication to league transfer bids by Loddon Valley league clubs Marong (2022) and Maiden Gully (2023). Both lost their appeals to switch to Heathcote.
Maiden Gully junior club has now made a pitch to enter an under 18 side in the Bendigo league this season while continuing to stand out of the Loddon Valley competition.
“Administrators need to look at how to continue this great thing ... community sport and still have it around in 10 years,” Holt said.
“Everyone has a right to have their say and someone has to adjudicate and some will not be happy with the decision.”
Holt said the commission had been able to “bring Maiden Gully to the table” but discussions did not go anywhere”.
Chris Harrington, who like Holt is a former Wedderburn coach and AFL Central Victoria original commissioner, has also stood down.
Their departures leave chairman Nicholas Rolfe, Brett Fitzpatrick who returned to the commission in 2018 after a brief foray into coaching, former Calivil player Gavin Hore and Judy Burke to oversee football across central Victoria until the commission’s annual meeting next month.
“Both Chris and I have been on the commission for 12 years - we were meant to step down three years ago but we haven’t been able to attract other people,’ Holt said. “I decided that if I got off before the annual general meeting in March, we might just flush out a couple of people.”
Holt said his involvement with football in the region is far from over.
He will continue as curator at Wedderburn’s Donaldson Park, bringing the surface back up to top playing condition after the summer storm floods.