Tara Murray
Kinglake will be back in the Northern Football Netball League next season.
The league announced on Wednesday the club had been accepted into the league for 2023.
The club was unanimously voted into the NFNL by affiliate NFNL members at a special general meeting earlier this month before their transfer from Outer East Football Netball League was then ratified by AFL Victoria.
It means Kinglake’s senior men’s team will return to the competition they played in between 1996 and 2007.
The Lakers are set to join division 3 next year, making it a nine-team division, with a bye to be reintroduced into that division.
There will be 29 senior men’s clubs across the three divisions.
Old Eltham Collegians were the most recent team to join the competition in 2019.
The club also intends to field netball teams in the upcoming 2022-23 summer netball competition as a pre cursor to the 2023 winter netball competition.
The league hasn’t announced what divisions they will play
NFNL chief executive Peter McDougall said the club would make a great contribution to the league’s senior men’s football and netball competitions.
“I welcome the Kinglake FNC to the NFNL,” he said.
“This move will assist them to create a one club approach with the Kinglake Junior FC who are currently a member of the NFNL,” he said.
“Geographically they belong in the northern region, and I look forward to their football and netball teams participating in the NFNL.”
The Lakers played in division 2 in the Outer East this year, which is the league’s third grade.
Both their seniors and reserves made the grand final.
The club said on its Facebook, “bring on 2023.”
