The Bendigo Bank Maryborough & Castlemaine District Football Netball League is pleased to release its Senior Fixture for the 2016 MCDFNL season.
The 2016 season will kick off on Friday 15th April, with Talbot and Maryborough Rovers facing off under lights at Princes Park, Maryborough, which will also be the MCDFNL’s 2016 season launch. The remainder of round one will be played on Saturday 16th April, which is highlighted by the 2015 Grand Final rematch as reigning premiers Navarre host Carisbrook to kick of their respective campaigns.
Other key features of the 2016 draw include
- The continuation of night football at Carisbrook and the introduction of twilight football at Trentham, with a combined total of six twilight/night games fixtured for 2016.
- Trentham will host Newstead in an ANZAC Day eve clash, which will be their second consecutive twilight game in Round 2.
- Continuation of last year’s junior interleague program with matches against the Central Highlands FL at Carisbrook on Wednesday 4th May, and against the Riddell District FNL under lights at Trentham on Wednesday 25th May.
- The MCDFNL will host the Horsham District FNL in the WorkSafe AFL Victoria Community Championships at Princes Park in Maryborough on Saturday 21st May.
- MCDFNL Grand Final Day to be held on Sunday 18th September 2016 at Princes Park, Maryborough.
All clubs will have two scheduled breaks in the first three months of the season, with Easter falling before the scheduled start of the season. All clubs will break on the weekend of May 21st/22nd due to the WorkSafe AFL Victoria Community Championships and also on Queen’s Birthday weekend in June. The league has also fixtured a split round in Round 14 to give clubs a break in the lead-up to finals.
After circulating a draft fixture at the 2015 AGM, MCDFNL Operations Manager Jake Dunne received feedback from clubs which assisted in the finalization of the fixture prior to its official release.
“We’ve worked together with the clubs to again utilize their ‘wishlist’ to help establish a suitable fixture for the 2016 season”, Dunne commented.
‘’It’s extremely exciting for us to be able to put forth a fixture, which aims to meet each clubs requests”.
“We think we’ve got a number of block-buster fixtures that will increase the interest in our league for 2016”.
“The number of Sunday fixtures has again decreased from last year, with the demand for fewer games and an increase in umpire numbers making this possible”.
“Despite this, we were still able to fixture a number of crowd-drawing matches on Sundays”.
“The season is littered with marquee match-ups and it is our hope that this can generate greater interest in the region”.
“We’re extremely pleased to be able to begin the season with a Friday Night clash between two tradition rivals in Maryborough”.
“Similarly, we’re excited with the introduction of twilight football and netball at Trentham in 2016, and what this could do for the league going forward”.
“We’re anticipating a big year for both football and netball in the MCDFNL”.
Themed rounds include the Indigenous Round in Round 6, and Multicultural Round in Round 11.
The 2016 MCDFNL junior fixture will be released in early 2016 after further consultation with clubs around their team affiliations for the season.
The 2016 MCDFNL fixture is attached in PDF format below.
Please note: Fixture is subject to change at the discretion of the MCDFNL Executive.