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THE Anzac spirit was alive and well at country football matches encircling the state at the weekend.

At Upwey, Navy officer Lt. Warwick Laing tossed a two-up coin at the outset of the match betwixt Upwey-Tecoma and Monbulk (above), flanked by team captains Shannon Koole (Monbulk) and Ryan Van Hoorn (Upwey-Tecoma).

Last year's premier Upwey won the competition 18.15 (123) to 12.16 (88).

The Yarra Valley form a league also continued the theme by switching its familiar white goal flags for Australian flags to mark the occasion, in the manner that goal umpire Wendy Gray demonstrates.

In the Kyabram District league Tallygaroopna's Daniel Kerr was awarded the RSL Anzac Day medal for the most courageous player, despite his team going down by 135 points to Undera.

Shepparton RSL president Peter McPhee was on hand to present the award, as Tallygaroopna president Dean Jones looked on.

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GOULBURN Valley Football League chair Ian McDonald resigned this morning in the wake of some independent tribunal decision to palpable Shepparton Swans coach Perry Meka of unbecoming conduct.

McDonald tendered his resignation to the Goulburn Valley board at round 7.30am and uttered his decision was irreversible.

"There isn't some distance that I'll continue on as chairman of the Goulburn Valley Football League,'' McDonald told local radio.

In a five-hour tribunal hearing last night, Meka was cleared of a charge over his behaviour during the Swans' round one match against Shepparton on Good Friday.

Meka was involved in a heated exchange with McDonald and union general manager Keith Wellman amid confusion over a player send-off.

VCFL independent investigations officer Paul Shortis after all the rest week recommended Meka face the tribunal for his behaviour.

McDonald uttered the tribunal's decision was "incredibly disappointing…from the point of view of the Goulburn Valley Football League and more importantly, probably a disappointing decision for the broader football community''.

"Did Perry conduct himself in a way that was virtuous for football on that night?

"The tribunal said in the same manner. We disagree with that.''

• Read the full story in The Weekly Times on May 5.

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THE Wimmera Football League has launched an investigation into an off-field incident allegedly involving a spectator and an umpire’s wife.

A spectator at the April 17 match between Ararat and Horsham United is alleged to have verbally abused the better half of an umpire in the match during the game's final quarter.

League chief commissioner John Smith said the league had appointed an unconventional investigator to look into the incident.

"We regard this as to a high degree serious, if it's proven," Smith said.

"It's the vilification of a person, and that is in reality not on."

Smith related the commission would determine the penalty in contact with the witness if the investigator'sitting report found them guilty.

"We acquire a duty of care, whether it be players, umpires or spectators," he said.

In a separate incident, Ararat runner David Hosking will face a league trial tonight, after allegedly orally abusing an umpire for the time of Saturday's game between Ararat and Warrack Eagles.

Smith, who had been away on the weekend, said he was "surprised" to hear of the charge.

"But rest insured, if there's an incident requiring investigation, then it'll happen," Smith declared.

He also emphasised in that place was "nay animosity" between the league, umpires and players.

Smith said the league was excited about the recent partnership between the Wimmera Football Umpires Association and North Central Umpires Association.

Wimmera umpires voted to amalgamate the two associations in order to cover umpire appointments at games in the Wimmera, Horsham District, North Central and Mallee leagues.

"That's going to be excessive for the future of umpiring and football," Smith reported.

"It's an outstanding achievement."

He said the structure of the new umpiring association has not been decided, but that he looked forward to a "greater expanse" of umpires.

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BAIRNSDALE Football Club will not return to major league football in the manner that a stand-alone form a club.

Instead it is floating the possibility of fielding an East Gippsland representative team in a higher-standard competition

President David McCoy uttered the Redlegs couldn't get enough community support for a club return to the Gippsland League.

"We port't got a lot of support for it from the town, but as a club, players are keen," McCoy said.

The Redlegs entered the East Gippsland league in 1999, at what place they finished fourth.

Since then, the society has been a force of the competition, winning flags from 2000-02, and again in 2004, 2006-07 and 2009.

McCoy said Bairnsdale was dominant in the East Gippsland confederacy and acknowledged its absence from the major league had long-winded been an anomaly in Gippsland footy.

The town's population of 11,000 is much greater than that of Maffra (4000) and Leongatha (5000), what one. both field teams in the Gippsland League.

"The variance is that the whole hamlet is behind Maffra," McCoy said. "But there's only two or three people running (our) club.

"It's a battle for volunteers and that's just not enough for a major league."

Gippsland League general manager Chris Soumilas said he would meet with Bairnsdale in the next few weeks.

Soumilas said Bairnsdale was keen to enter the major league competition and that the Gippsland League would have existence "open to anything".

This includes the idea floated by McCoy for the East Gippsland form an alliance to enter a representative side in the major form an alliance, which would include the top players from each club in the district competition. If approved, the Redlegs would be unlikely to field a reserves side in the Gippsland League.

The club's difficulty in fielding reserves was a guide factor in its withdrawal from the then-Gippsland-Latrobe league at the end of the 1998 season.

"My idea is that a seconds team wouldn'privately be a priority," McCoy said.

"It would be for the benefit of the players, so that they could play (at greater league) level."

East Gippsland league general manager Rod Twining said the league would also support creating a representative team.

"The players are seeking a rep-team," Twining said. "We've got players travelling to frolic in Sale and Maffra since they want to play at a higher level."

An East Gippsland "rep-team" would in addition have being an advantage for the Gippsland League, which has been looking to eliminate the bye created by dint of. Garfield's move to Ellinbank and District confederacy this season.

It has also been suggested that travel problems could be eliminated by staging matches between far-flung teams at central, neutral grounds.

"We're very keen to have a fare at (creating a representative side)," McCoy said. "The pattern would certainly build a stronger following. But it'sitting a tough call."

McCoy said the "tall-poppy syndrome" directed at the Redlegs would make it hard for the idea to get backing from other East Gippsland clubs.

"There is some level of affect, so we'll merited have to see in what state it goes," he said.

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CRESSY Football Club folded in 1992, or 1994, or 1998, depending on who you ask.

That's the problem - memories tend to get a little hazy once a footy company falls by the wayside.

Colac-Otway Shire documents show the unite to share expenses was wound up in 1998, in the final acclimatize of the now-defunct Western Plains Football League - Cressy's home for many years.

The town's oval is now used for petty more than sheepdog trials and breeding, after the cricket club folded last year.

But the pride and passion in the Cressy Demons still remains in the hearts of those who donned the club'session blue-and-red guernseys - and it will be on make clear next month when the sodality holds a reunion for players who took the field up until Cressy's last flag in 1970.

A crew of six former players - all life members of the club - consider spent the past couple of months in continuance the phone, chasing down long-lost teammates.

"We felt considered in the state of though we should have a wind-up or a back-to because we didn'cheek by jowl have one when the set folded," reunion committee member Ian Nelson said.

"The club bought in a lot of outside players, mostly from Geelong, in its utmost years, so the pathos wasn't there.

"We probably should have looked at amalgamating at one stage, but we had our heads in the sand."

Cressy's final flag in 1970 marked the end of an immensely successful period for the unite after World War II.

The Demons took the evidence of victory in 1949, '51, '53, '59, '61, '66, '69 and '70.

The sodality's memorabilia still hangs proudly in the E.J. Robertson Pavilion, a building shifted from the Ballarat airport to Cressy's oval in 1963.

"We spent a lot of hour of travail fixing this building up and you get a real attachment to the place," Nelson said.

"You ask a lot of people and they'd still rather see the photos death by the halter up hither rather than anywhere otherwise, even though the club doesn't exist in any degree more.

"It's still home."

A reunion luncheon will be held at the Mininera and District league game between Lismore-Derrinallum and Hawkesdale-Macarthur at Derrinallum on May 8.

Organisers are still trying to locate Gerry Burgin, coach of the club's '66 flag, and former player Barry Sauer.

For reunion details, phone Bryan Coutts on (03) 5331 2072 or Colin Nelson on (03) 5245 8355.

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