Tara Murray
The VU Western Spurs will call the Western Region Football League home from next season.
The Spurs, who have been playing in the Northern Football League since the introduction of location based competitions, feel the time is right to move their matches closer to home.
The Spurs won three premierships while they played in the NFL and had been one of the competition’s most successful clubs.
The Spurs fielded one side in the NFL’s top division finishing sixth. They’ve previously had multiple sides, along with a masters side.
Spurs president Ash Block said the club was excited about this next chapter in their club’s history.
The club, which was formerly based in St Albans, has called Footscray home for a number of years.
“This (move) comes as the club’s best interest to further succeed, to develop, to maintain players, volunteers and staff and to recruit new Spurs for the future,” Block said.
“We are extremely grateful for our time with the NFNL where premierships were won, players drafted to the AFLW, our coaches stepping into the next level, our staff representing the NFNL rep league, and players and coaches winning individual awards.”
Next season will be a big season for the club, as it marks its 30th anniversary.
New WRFL chief executive Ritchie Hinton said they were thrilled to have the Spurs joining the competition.
“They spoke to the other clubs during the process and spoke about how strong the league is now,” he said.
“For them now it makes more sense to play in the WRFL. They see themselves as a western suburbs team and for women’s sport in general it’s a good news story.
“We’re pleased that a new club, a high profile club in the women’s space, is interested in being involved with us.”
Hinton said the connection between the Spurs and Victoria University was another connection shared with the league.
VU sponsors the league including being the naming partner for the women’s competitions.
“VU is a great partner of ours and sponsors the league,” he said.
“It creates those relationships and helps further establish VU in the community and in the cohesion in the west.”
Hinton said the growth of female participation in the league was something that he wanted to continue to see grow,
He said both female football and netball both are major parts of the competition going forward.
“In an ideal world we have summer netballers, being winter footballers,” he said.
“If we can continue to have the dual sport model it benefits both sports.”
