Sport
14 November, 2025
Travel fatigue: Road trips to premier territory again
TWO road trips to face the reigning North Central Football League premiers in 2016 has Wedderburn steeled to improve.
For the second successive year, the Redbacks have been hit with a tough fixture, with three matches against Calder – two of them to be played at the Lions’ two home grounds at Wycheproof and Nullawil.
Wedderburn will begin the season away to the Lions at Wycheproof Recreation Reserve as the unequal North Central draw bites.
An eight-club competition sees teams play each other twice, with rounds one and two repeated at the end of the season to bring the total to 16 matches.
The league has a virtual three-tier competition – Calder, Birchip Watchem and Sea Lake Nandaly comfortably at the top, then a gap to Boort and Wedderburn fighting out a finals spot, followed by Charlton, St Arnaud and Donald battling out the bottom three.
The big imbalance in talent means the draw, and which teams meet three times, is of critical importance.
Last season Wedderburn was also drawn to play the reigning premiers away in round one, facing Sea Lake Nandaly and losing by 48 points, 10.16 to 4.4.
The Redbacks travelled to Sea Lake again in round 15, losing by 65 points to confirm that they would miss the finals.
A mammoth 201-point win over St Arnaud in the final round boosted their percentage but they still finished two matches behind fourth-placed Boort.
“Obviously it’s a bit disappointing that we have to travel twice up there,” Metherell said, acknowledging that Wedderburn’s draw again was a tough one.
“But it is what it is – to be the best you have to beat the best.
“We have to get better next year, but I’m excited to come up against Calder in round one and get a bit of a gauge to see where you are at against the reigning premier.”
Despite another fixture that puts his team at a likely disadvantage, Metherell was not in favour of cutting the season to 14 rounds and having each team play each other twice.
“Playing only 14 rounds would make it hard to recruit new players – we’ve got enough byes in our draw already to stretch the season out.”
North Central fixtures four all-team byes every year, marking Anzac weekend, hockey junior championships, King’s Birthday and July school holidays.
“If we could get another team in the league so we could play each other twice, that would be ideal, but the way footy’s going nowadays it’s pretty hard to draw another team in,” Metherell said.
The Loddon Valley league will grow to 10 teams next season with the addition of Macorna, so there will be no need for club byes in an 18-round competition.
However, Metherell still felt a nine-team format was perfect.
“I played with North Bendigo in the Heathcote league for 10 years in a nine-club league, and I think that works best,” he said.
“It’s fair on everyone – everyone gets two byes for the year, and you play everyone twice.”
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