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THE BARWON BULLETIN

The official noticeboard for AFL Barwon Club Officials & Volunteers.
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EDITION 72
April 1, 2026
(LAST UPDATED - April 1, 2026)
Bulletin Archive
Contact Us

(Umpire appointments are updated Thursday 4pm)

General Updates

AFL Barwon - Youth Nines Competition

The AFL Barwon Youth Nines Competition Registrations are NOW OPEN!

AFL Barwon is excited to offer all clubs/participants the opportunity to participate in an AFL Youth Nines Day, at Highton Reserve on Monday the 13th of April from 10am-4pm.

This is a one-day event where clubs/participants have the opportunity to register a side that will play off in a round robin format throughout the day.

This will be for participants between the ages of 13-16 (U14 & U16 Divisions) with all genders encouraged to enter, whether it's a Male, Female or Mixed side that registers. 

It's recommended that sides have a maximum of 15 players which allows for 9 on field at a time and 6 interchangeable players.

The cut off for team submissions is April 6th.

Click here to register
Expressions of Interest: Barwon Regional Council

AFL Barwon is pleased to invite expressions of interest and nominations for appointments to the newly established Barwon Regional Council. 

The Regional Council has been formed as part of an evolving governance model for community football and will play a key role in providing strategic guidance and recommendations to AFL Victoria. This includes matters relating to the administration, growth, and long-term sustainability of Australian Football across the Barwon region.

Read more
2026 Kardinia Park Stadium Trust All Abilities FNL Fixture Released

AFL Barwon is proud to release the 2026 All Abilities Football Netball League fixture, headlined by the football competition splitting into two divisions and new club entering the netball competition.

Read more
Training Football Orders
Just a reminder that AFL Barwon has match and training footballs available for purchase from our office.

You can view the full range and place your order via the link below.

Order here
Live Life Whole Coaches Workshop
We’re excited to invite you to an upcoming Coaches Workshop focused on supporting young females 15 and over participating in AFL or Netball at local community club level.
This workshop is delivered by the Live Life Whole Project, an initiative led by experienced, evidence-based health professionals. Their work supports women and girls across all life stages through workshops and programs delivered to clubs within our region.
Their approach focuses on preventative health education, empowering young female athletes to become self-aware, informed, and confident in managing their health and wellbeing—both in sport and in everyday life.
This session will explore the unique challenges faced by young female athletes and provide practical strategies to help them thrive both on and off the field. With a strong focus on female health and wellbeing, the LLW will dive into the key differences in coaching girls and address the barriers that can impact their participation and performance in sport.
Take a look at the following video to set the scene - here
What you’ll gain from this workshop:
  • A deeper understanding of the specific needs of young female athletes
  • Practical tools to support their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing
  • Insights into common barriers to participation—and how to overcome them
  • Strategies to create a positive, inclusive, and empowering team environment
Who should attend?
We’d love for you to join us and be part of creating a stronger, healthier future for young women in sport.
Can I ask you to promote this internally within your clubs. You may even want to share this video that Live Life Whole posted on their socials.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQquWqQjsju/?igsh=MTA1YXRpZDRsdXE1aQ==
Details found here:
Where - AFL Barwon Social rooms - 204 Roslyn Road, Highton
When - Monday April 20th - 6pm-7.30pm
Bookings essential. To secure your spot please register here -  https://forms.gle/35fn7aFKzLtJiCc98
On-field Officials Apparel Orders
Just a reminder that all on-field officials aparell orders must be complete via the AFL Barwon store.

You can view the full range and place your order via the link below.

Order here
Netball Positions Available

We are pleased to share that we have positions available within our netball team.

Competition Coordinator - We are seeking a motivated individual to join our casual competition workforce. The successful candidate would be responsible for overseeing competition venues on Tuesday and Friday evenings.

Please see the position description here for more information.

Netball Operations Intern - Work Experience Overview – AFL Barwon

We are excited to welcome work experience participants into our team and provide a valuable learning and development experience. Our program is designed to give students or recent graduates real-world exposure to the operations of a dynamic organisation, hands-on opportunities to contribute, and the ability to explore different areas of our business.

What We Offer

As part of your time with us, you’ll gain hands-on experience working alongside a passionate and experienced team, allowing you to contribute meaningfully to our day-to-day operations. You’ll also gain insight into all areas of the business, including (but not limited to)

  • Operations and Administration
  • Events and Competitions
  • Community Engagement
  • Governance and Compliance

Please see the position description here for more information.

Rural & Regional Youth Mental Health Workshop

Commercial Partnerships

Sherrin Footy Fundraiser – a fun, simple way for clubs to raise money

The Sherrin Footy Fundraiser is a fun, simple way to raise money for your club and cause. Earn $120 per box for your cause.

Each Sherrin Footy Fundraiser box, comes with 24 Football-shaped high-bounce balls. Shaped like an AFL football, this 11cm high bounce ball not only helps to raise funds but adds fun to your training sessions. Useful for improving hand-eye coordination and reflexes and ideal for both indoor and outdoor play.

Find out more
AFL Barwon Member Offer: 50% OFF / $200 subsidy on PROTEQT™ head impact tracking.
Claim Here

Grants

Telstra Footy Grants -closing 02/04/2026

2nd round opened 02/02/2026 and closes 02/04/2026.

  Local football clubs across Australia have the opportunity to share in an $8 million funding boost over 2024 – 2028 through Telstra Footy Grants. $4 million was granted by the AFL and Telstra in the first two years of the program to deserving clubs Australia-wide. With another pool of $2 million to be distributed in 2026, eligible regional and metro community football clubs can apply for grants up to $20,000 – helping strengthen, sustain and grow local footy.

As the foundation of our great game and the heartbeat of communities, investment in local clubs is vital to ensuring everyone has access to play Aussie Rules and experience the health, social and wellbeing benefits that come with belonging to a club.

More Information
The Get Active Kids Voucher Program is open!

Get in quick as applications for a voucher will close at 10am on 2nd of April or earlier if the budget allocation is fully exhausted.

Victorian families with a Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card can apply for up to $200 to support their child’s sport and active recreation activities. 

Apply now
SRV – Sporting Club Grants Program - Closing 07/04/2026

Access to this funding helps grassroots clubs and organisations address barriers in participation, develop safe and sustainable practices and build social and active local communities. 

More information

Coaching

Football

Are you Coaching in 2026?

In the lead up to the 2026 season, we’d like to remind all new and returning coaches of the following key requirements:

✔ All coaches must be registered in CoachAFL for the 2026 season.
✔ Mandatory online modules must be completed before coaching begins (minimum accreditation requirements will be shown upon login).
Further information on registering, accessing modules, or updating accreditation can be found HERE  we encourage you to ensure your CoachAFL profile is active and up to date.

Football

Football Umpiring

Umpire Registration – 2026 Season

All individuals officiating matches at any level are required to register or re-register via OfficialsHQ (OHQ). Please refer to the links below to complete the appropriate process:

Anyone umpiring two or more games across the season must be formally registered, either as a club-appointed umpire or as a volunteer umpire.

This process ensures compliance with Working With Children (WWC) requirements—meaning all participants must hold a current volunteer WWC or a recognised exemption—and enables AFL Barwon to maintain an accurate record of who is officiating matches across our competitions.

All new umpires are required to complete the AFL Umpire Foundation Course (online). Returning umpires who completed the course prior to the 2026 season are not required to complete it again this year.

Umpire Education Module User Guide

Resource Links

On-Field Vests & Apparel (loco)
Football Order Form

Netball

General Netball

Monday Senior Women's Competition – Team entries closing soon!

Please indicate your interest to enter a team to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so we are able to adequately plan for the season.

Continuing on from the term 4 and term 1 competitions, the partnership between AFL Barwon and Geelong United Basketball will continue, with a brand-new 15 rounds WINTER season commencing.

This competition is set up under the "Geelong Barwon Netball" banner. 

Please feel free to reach out if you have any queries or interest in this competition. 

Netball and Paperwork Collection

BFNL and GFNL Netballs are now available for collection from the AFL Barwon Office (204 Roslyn Road).

Midweek netballs will be available next week.

Paperwork is due for delivery to Highton on Wednesday, so we will email you when this arrives. A reminder that votes will be digital this year – please ensure you action the correspondence from Maddie in this space.

Junior / Midweek Netball

2026 Winter Season Dates

Please see below the season dates for the 2026 Midweek Winter Competition

**Please note 9U is only the first 10 weeks of competition.

Representative Netball

Congratulations to our representative teams who competed in the Barwon Junior Netball Championships Grand Finals this week

Results can be found below:

13&U BFNL (38)V 13&U GCNA (34)

17&U BFNL (45)V 17&U CDFNL (50)

15&U GFNL (30) V 15&U GCNA (37)

Netball Umpiring

Club Umpire Coordinators Actions Required

There was a series of Actions email to clubs on the back of the Netball Club Umpire Coordinators meeting last week. Please check your inboxes for more information on each of the below and ensure all tasks are completed by the Monday 30 March deadline.

  • ACTION #1 - All umpires to register into OfficialsHQ
  • ACTION #2 - Send through list of your umpires
  • ACTION #3 - Rostering Weekly requirement
  • ACTION #4 NEW ELECTRONIC LEAGUE VOTES PROCESS
  • ACTION #5 - ELECTRONIC VOTES CONTINUED

Umpires at the conclusion of the game will enter votes electronically. See below screen recording. You should be able to copy this link and share within your own umpire groups. This recording has been done on a phone; the process is the same on a desktop/iPad just that the screen size changes.

OfficialsHQ Vote Entry Screen Recording.MP4

Steps for entering votes

  • Scroll to find the match and grade details
  • Click on the shaking bell
  • Choose the team from the drop-down box
  • Select the player for three votes (3 stars = 3 votes)
  • Scroll and complete the 2 and 1
  • Click SEND
    • If a player isn’t in the drop down
      • Choose 'add manual line'
      • Type the players name
      • Type the position/s that player played.

Please note the position is only required when manually adding a player.

A Grade and B Grade games will be appointed directly to the panel umpire through their personal OfficialsHQ profiles - This hasn’t changes from the previous season.

Resource Links

Netball Resources
2026 AFL Barwon Pre-season Handbook

Netball Victoria

Netball Victoria Update

Netball Connect Live/ On-call Support Sessions:

As the leagues and regional associations ramp up for the start of their season, we will have an on-call Netball Connect service available during certain days and hours. These sessions are open to all associations, leagues, and clubs.

To connect with this service during the open times listed below, please call 03 9321 2299.

  • Thursday 2 April - 7-9pm
  • Thursday 9 April - 7-9pm
  • Friday 10 April - 4-6pm

 

Netball Victoria Resource Page – the place to go when you have a question or need a Netball Connect resource

Looking for up to date Netball Connect resources? Got a question on NetSetGo or Coaching/ Umpiring Programs?

Head to our Netball Victoria resource page.

This page covers all sorts of topics and FAQs and provides resources to assist you. It also connects you to our Ask Netti search engine (so you can search your questions) or you can reach out to our support team by submitting a ticket from this page.

 

Reminder – Netball Connect Update 31st March.

Just a reminder that a Netball Connect update will happen overnight tonight. Communications highlighting the key changes will be sent to all admins via Netball Connect.

  

New “Code of Conduct” and “Complaints and Disciplinary Policy” for Community Netball

Netball Australia have released two new, and important, documents for the community netball. We will soon provide all affiliates with more information and education on these new policies but wanted to provide you with access to these documents as soon as possible.

  1. The Code of Conduct for Community Netball. This Code of Conduct sets out the standards of behaviours that are expected of all Affiliates and Relevant Persons in our sport, including those individuals that are registered with a Member Organisation, such as players, umpires, coaches, administrators and volunteers, as well as parents and spectators – whether in-person or online. Importantly, this Policy replaces and supersedes the previous Netball Victoria Codes of Conduct.
  2. The Complaints & Disciplinary Policy replaces and supersedes the previous Netball Integrity Policy Framework Conduct & Disciplinary Policy, with updates, amendments and added information.

Both Policies sit under the Netball Australia Integrity Framework, and all affiliates are expected to abide by and uphold these policies. To view these polices, please head to Netball Australia’s Integrity Policies Page

 

Free Online Grant Writing session – delivered by Vic Sport

This session will support sport organisations to brush-up on their skills for grant writing, communicating to Boards, members and improve stakeholder relationships. An information-based workshop, providing an overview of tools such as program logics, theories of change and impact statements to refine your thinking and provide the framework for grant writing or impact reporting. We will also provide some TOP TIPS relevant to Victorian sport. Tuesday 14th April, 12.00-1.30pm. More information here

AFL Victoria

Worksafe Insights Survey

An Opportunity to highlight community football interest and breadth of our regional audience. Please complete this short 10-minute survey to have your say.

Complete survey here
AAMI: Clangers for Good AAMI Clangers for Good is back for 2026!

Packed flippers instead of your footy boots? Clangers happen! Clangers could win someone or their club a share in $250,000. Simply tell AAMI how they can help. This is their biggest prize pool ever and is available to local clubs and footy fans.

Click here for more information including T&C’ s.
VicHealth’s Set the Standard campaign

The Set the Standard campaign has recently launched thanks to years of work by VicHealth to prevent racism and strengthen community sport. It gives coaches and club leaders practical, evidence-informed tools to create safer, more welcoming clubs.

Set the Standard offers free tools, templates and other resources to support clubs and FREE 1 hour in person workshops until November 2026 for clubs.

Click here for more information
Container Deposit Scheme

Local club fundraising opportunity through Container Deposit Scheme partnership 

Local football clubs across the state will be supported again in 2026 to raise funds and become more sustainable through a partnership between AFL Victoria and Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic). CDS Vic provides the opportunity for Victorians to return eligible drink containers for a 10-cent refund. 

More information
Webinar – Volunteering in focus – Tailoring roles to suit my needs.

This webinar hosted by the Australian Sports Commission focuses on supporting clubs who may be struggling to fill roles, experiencing volunteer burnout, or simply want to work smarter, by providing practical steps. The 1-hour recording is available to anyone at any time; just click here

AFL Victoria Promotion of your club

The AFL provides a wide range of marketing assets and editable templates that you can use to promote your club.

For social media, assets are available in different sizes depending if you're posting in feed or via story on Facebook & Instagram. Include any text in your post rather than on these images for better engagement.

For Flyers, these are editable so you can tailor the image and club details to suit your audience. Only include key details such as program, location & time to make sure your message is clear and simple. Clubs yet to open/promote/ their registrations should do so as soon as possible.

Promotional Toolkits and Resources - Play AFL
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