Sport
12 August, 2025
MCDFNL finals venues announced
With finals football and netball looming, the MCDFNL has announced the venues for the upcoming finals series, with long-standing hosts Princes Park not included.
Announced last Thursday, the decision is a significant shift for the league as they prepare for what on paper looks to be one of the most competitive finals series in recent memory.
The new-look schedule sees Avoca Recreation Reserve and CHS Broadbent Oval hold the qualifying finals on Saturday, August 23 and elimination finals on Sunday, August 24.
Carisbrook Recreation Reserve will host the rest of the finals series, including the grand final on Saturday, September 13.
MCDFNL president Paul Wicks said the changes were a tough decision for the league, as they were required to assess their options after several issues with the facilities at Princes Park emerged.
“We had to get the finals booked in, and we had to get certain parts of the ground locked in, and we just couldn’t get the kitchen locked in,” he said.
“It got to a stage where we had to make up our minds (about) what we were doing because we had to give clubs time to adjust their liquor licences and things like that.
“There’s no fights going on anywhere, it’s just how it turned out, we had to make a call.
“You’re never going to make everyone happy, unfortunately, and in this position, you are either damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
With their long-time hosts out of the equation, Wicks is confident that Avoca, Natte and Carisbrook will be fantastic facilitators.
“When you have two venues for the first week of finals, they have to be pretty close together,” he said.
“The surface at Natte got redone at the start of the year, and it’s in magnificent nick.
“There will be start times adjusted slightly while the first week is on, but the main reason is that the facilities are good and the grounds are reasonably close together.
“I know Carisbrook is probably going to play a home final, but at the end of the day, if you aren’t using Princes Park, the facilities are good there and the location is five minutes away.
“Because it’s not Princes Park, we don’t want people not going, that was our thinking behind it.”
According to the league, the venue changes won’t have an impact on the existing rotation system surrounding potential finals income at bars, canteens and raffles, with host clubs agreeing in principle to allow incoming clubs full access to sell products “without impeding on their potential takings”.
With venues now secured, Wicks said he’s looking forward to what should be an exciting finals series.
“It’s a pretty open race this year, which is good for the league, there’s I think seven sides who on their day can make the preliminary final,” he said.
“Years gone by, there have probably been only three or four sides at maximum, so the league is sitting in a good spot as far as that goes.”