It was a simple premise: gather all four football premiers from the Goulburn Valley, Murray, Kyabram District and Picola District competitions, let them compete in a mini-tournament and vie for supremacy while everyone gets up to scratch for the new year.
It could take multiple forms — a truncated, short-game series of round-robin clashes, three weekends of full round-robin affairs or a simple two-week knockout bracket.
The word was given to ‘watch this space’ as feedback was sought from 2024 premiership coaches as to whether they felt the idea would be viable, beneficial or a complete waste of time — all opinions were on the table.
Goulburn Valley League clubs would be favoured in any circumstance, of course, but Echuca boss Simon Maddox was happy to entertain the thought.
It shouldn’t be terribly surprising to anybody what the first instinct was out of the three-time defending premiership coach of our major league upon hearing the idea.
“It sounds incredibly arrogant, but Echuca would likely win by 20 goals,” Maddox said.
“The biggest obstacle would be how to not get a lopsided competition as Shepparton would likely belt all those clubs as well and even Euroa might too.”
Of course, the green machine was never under any obligation to be diplomatic.
After all, until proven otherwise even by members of its own league, Echuca has every reason to believe in those words.
That is, over four full-length quarters.
With plenty of options available, though, including two-quarter games in a one-night round-robin format, there’s cause for optimism that you would find competitive spectacles — especially given the Murray Bombers’ penchant for stumbling out of the blocks.
“Maybe shortened games would be better as I’m sure plenty of people would turn up if you hosted it somewhere central,” Maddox said.
“You wouldn’t want to start slowly and then let Murch-Toolamba jump you.
“Echuca wouldn’t want to embarrass themselves, so the other sides might have a bit of a free hit.
“Congupna could be competitive, I think they’d belt a Picola side, but we’d be open to it if it’s good for footy in the area.”
Kyabram District League flag-winning coach Brett Foley took his opportunity to weigh in on the concept as well.
The boss of last year’s only undefeated premiership side was cagey at first when presented with the possible formats.
“We’d definitely get belted by the GV team,” Foley said.
“I think there’d probably be a gap with the Murray league, but the Picola would be a good game.
“If you go on practice matches, I think Shepp and Congupna have been pretty close the last couple of years, and we played Katamatite and won without there being too much difference.”
In a similar vein to Maddox, a more quick-fire series of clashes appeared to make the idea more palatable in Foley’s mind.
“You could do something like that, where the two major clubs play and the two minor league clubs play, but there would be a big gap to Echuca,” Foley said.
“I’m guessing teams would like the challenge. If it was a short halves kind of thing, you never know, so why not try something different and see if it works?
“Plenty of teams used to do night series at Barooga and Katandra with shortened games, so we’d play just to see how we go.
“We’d just have to be premiers in 2025 to be invited and then have our full complement of players, but there’s no harm in it.”
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