By ADEM SARICAOGLU
MELTON South will host Doug Hawkins’ Bacchus Marsh Cobras on a Saturday night to open the 2013 Ballarat Football League season in a draft fixture released to clubs.
On the same night (April 13) Melton will travel to Clarke Oval to take on Sunbury one week before round one officially kicks off.
The two games have been brought forward from later rounds, meaning three of the four clubs will actually play their second game of the season for premiership points in round one, while Melton has a bye.
In total, eight night games will be played in the opening four rounds, with some of those to be played at MacPherson Park and Melton Recreation Reserve.
League operations manager Aaron Nunn said the league was keen to continue its push for night footy in 2013.
“We’re continuing on with a fair bit of night football, we’ve got eight games next year as opposed to seven this year,” Nunn said.
“We just wanted to try and draw more crowds to our games, basically, to hopefully get a few more punters through the gate to enjoy the product of the Ballarat Football League.”
The fixture also features a standalone Friday night match between Sunbury and Darley six days after the Lions host Melton, an Anzac Day clash between East Point and Ballarat, a round two rivalry round that will pit the Bloods against the Panthers and numerous Sunday fixtures.
Nunn said the Sunday fixtures were designed to assist with an umpire shortage in the league.
“It’s an ongoing problem for every league, so it’s just a matter of building the numbers and building support for the umpiring associations and just making sure we get plenty of numbers on board,” Nunn said.
“It’s just to assist with the numbers down the grades, basically, so the more umpires we have available for the junior grades, the more coverage we’ll get.”
Clubs had until 17 December to request further changes before the final fixture was to be released.
