The Goulburn Valley Playing Area’s weekend pennant was already undergoing some change, with East Shepparton relegated to division two, while Seymour VRI earned promotion by clinching that competition’s premiership.
Now, though, there will be more questions ahead for the association’s divisional structure after members at Kyabram Bowls Club voted overwhelmingly in favour of initiating a move to Bendigo Campaspe Goldfields Bowls Region.
The move would land the Bombers in the Campaspe Playing Area for pennant play, taking a club out of several GVPA divisions beyond the top Tuesday and Saturday leagues.
Having claimed the weekend division five premiership and played Matheson Shield finals multiple years in a row, even when few predicted the red and black would make it last season, it was clear the move was not being made for competitive reasons.
Instead, in the words of coach Mal Williams, the approach to make this move was purely geographical.
“The only reason we’ve decided to shift camp is the fact bowls members are not interested in going to Yea or Alexandra,” Williams said.
“The Goulburn Valley region and Bowls Victoria have done nothing about it, so our members decided to up and go.
“Stanhope left a couple of years ago because they’d had enough and the Goulburn Valley will end up a basketcase if they don’t fix things up.
“We’ve sent a letter off to the main three parties — Goulburn Valley, Campaspe and Bowls Victoria.
“We’ve been everywhere we could possibly go to talk and nothing’s happened.”
BCGBR was quick to accept Kyabram’s proposal, and the move now only requires the approval of Bowls Victoria, who isn’t expected to stand in the way of the transition.
BCGBR president Vicky Tierney said the region was happy to welcome Kyabram into the fold for 2025-26.
“It'll be wonderful,” she said.
“We had Stanhope come in two years ago, and they love it, they think it's fantastic.
“To have Kyabram, who finished third in division one over there (in the GVPA), it'll be great.”
Kyabram was keen to make the move, regardless of where they slotted in to the Campaspe Playing Area’s division structure, but Tierney said she expected a club of Ky’s quality will join division one immediately, expanding the top grade to nine teams, at least in the short term.
The BCGBR president also flagged the possibility of introducing a promotion and relegation system to the Campaspe Playing Area to potentially readjust the league in future seasons.
“The first year, probably, we’ll play with nine and then maybe two will drop down and then promotion/relegation will bring someone up from below,” she said.
“Campaspe don't currently have promotion/relegation, but we do in Bendigo, and it's something that probably needs to be considered; we've already talked about it.
“For the first year, it'll probably mean nine (teams) just until we figure out how strong (Kyabram) are.”
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