Sport
15 March, 2026
New junior competition gets green light
LODDON Valley football will have an Under 14 football competition this season, with five teams confirmed .
Pyramid Hill, Inglewood, Maiden Gully, Marong and the league’s new club Macorna will field teams, with Bridgewater still a possibility.
League chair Richard Hicks said he hoped it was the beginning of a new era for juniors in the region.
“For me, it’s terrific because it will help with the retention and participation of players from junior grades through to seniors,” he said.
“It’s a long-term project – we will start this year and hopefully build on it in the future.”
Hicks said clubs such as Pyramid Hill and Inglewood had reported that the Under 14 competition had encouraged kids who would otherwise not have played sport at all to sign up.
Clubs with an already strong junior system, such as Maiden Gully, which fields numerous teams in the Bendigo Junior league, saw the new Loddon Valley option as a bonus.
“More kids get a game, and instead of four Under 14 teams you have five with the Loddon Valley included,” Hicks said.
While the league was not actively seeking further expansion, he noted that “clubs to the north or the west seeing a second tier of junior football helps”.
Hicks said because the decision to introduce an Under 14 competition came late, many parents had already signed their children to clubs in the Bendigo junior league.
In future, knowing junior football could be played locally would encourage extra numbers and potentially extra teams for the Loddon Valley, he said.