The Kyabram District League is “looking at options post 2026” in the case of a potential split from the AFL Goulburn Murray administration.

The KDL has an agreement to be supplied an operations manager from AFLGM until the end of the 2026 season, which they will honour, however the imminent departure of current operations manager Michael Houston has seen the league begin to look at other alternatives.

With just six rounds remaining before finals, Houston’s departure to take up a role with AFL Queensland leaves the league in a precarious position, however KDL president Peter Cordy has been assured by AFLGM there will be minimal disruption.

“We have a contract with AFL Goulburn Murray to supply us an operations person until the end of 2026,” he said.

“We’ve been in discussions, they’ve advertised that position, and they have assured us that they will fulfil their obligations to supply us with someone and the assistance needed to get us through this year and next season.”

But given a replacement for Houston will be the fifth operations manager AFLGM has hired since the COVID-interrupted 2020-2021 seasons, Cordy said the league was doing its “due diligence” to its 13 clubs by assessing its options beyond the current agreement.

“All we’ve done, and we’ve made the AFL Goulburn Murray and AFL Commission well aware, that as due diligence to our clubs, we are looking at options post 2026,” he said.

“But at the moment, we are committed to fulfil that contract until the end of 2026 that we’ve got in place with them.

“From there on, we’ll do our due diligence, we’ll gather all the information, we’ll give the clubs some options, and it will be up to the 13 clubs once we’ve got all that information to make a decision as to whatever they want to do into the future past 2026.”

If the league decides not to extend the administration agreement with AFLGM, which also administers the Goulburn Valley League, one option would be to head in the same direction as the Murray league, which is self-administered but remains affiliated with AFL Victoria.

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Sunday, 3rd September 2023

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