It is with great anticipation, the 2023 season will commence this Friday April 7 with the traditional Good Friday Strathmore Community Bank Premier Division Men's game, Keilor v Strathmore, as well as Rookie Me Division 1 games Hillside v Keilor Park and Craigieburn v Roxburgh Park. All other games begin Saturday April 15.
Just as exciting are a couple of Good Friday matches to kick off the Airport Toyota Women’s competitions with Hillside v Oak Park, and under lights after the men’s at Joe Brown Oval, Keilor v Strathmore. Round 1 of the Airport Toyota Women’s kicks off April 15 and in 2023, the EDFL boasts 22 teams across three divisions.
Our Shearasun Brewing men’s Thirds begins under lights April 14.
The iFLY Junior Competitions commence April 16 with grading games for the first four weeks.
The EDFL currently has close to 10,000 registered participants with our football teams growing from 409 in 2022, to 464 teams in 2023.
The EDFL umpires have also had a lengthy preseason, and everyone is ready and eager for the season to commence with over 400 umpires registered. The league continues to invest a significant number of resources to equip our umpires to allow high-level coaching and training. The EDFL has also expanded the ‘Blue Card’ system at all levels in a bid to reduce umpire abuse.
We are all excited to see our participants commence playing and umpiring, along with the vast numbers of support staff including coaches, volunteers, match day officials, and especially family, friends, and spectators.
The EDFL is also proud to announce the Strathmore Community Bank will continue as the major sponsor with their naming rights again in 2023. We are very thankful for their ongoing support and contribution to the EDFL and the wider sporting community.
We thank Strathmore Community Bank along with our other major sponsors; Rookie Me; MCAP; Airport Toyota; AGA; Shearasun Brewing, and iFLY. A special thanks to all our other community sponsors too, the continued support of our sponsors enables the league to keep participation costs low for everyone involved in community sports across the region.
We anticipate the 2023 season will be the strongest yet, and the League has set a high benchmark in terms of conduct and behaviour of our clubs, players, and spectators, and we expect this to continue this year.
Finally, we wish all our participants all the best in their first games and for season 2023.
