South East Football Netball League

The South East Football Netball League was an Australian rules football competition containing teams in the south-east of Melbourne, Victoria. The 9 teams were all part of the Casey-Cardinia division of the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League (MPNFL) competition, which broke away to form a new league in 2015. At the end of 2018 the league opted to merge with the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League. The final premiers were the Berwick Football Club.

The competition had its origins in the South West Gippsland FL from 1954 to 1994. In 1995 the league was rolled in the MPNFL and the administrative duties were taken by the MPNFL management. While under the MPNFL control there were three minor re-distributions of clubs and that created different divisions, most of the clubs were in the MPNFL Northern Division 1995–98; MPNFL Peninsula Division 1999–2004;& MPNFL Casey-Cardinia League 2005–2014

A spokesman for the CCFNL clubs Kahl Heinze said "There was excitement and elation to have reached this point in the process. Poor communication, a lack of financial transparency and management, lack of strategic direction and a lack of service to the CCFNL clubs were some of the grievances that led to the clubs pursuing the move for independence. We will be able to develop corporate partnership that spans both seniors and juniors specific to our region, build a dynamic and competitive competition in both football and netball that attracts other teams, hence the reason we’re not calling ourselves Casey Cardinia. We will be able to work with the juniors on what are the best pathways to senior footy.”^[1]

The South West Gippsland Football League (SWGFL) was an Australian rules football league containing clubs based in West Gippsland and Melbourne's outer south-east. It can be considered a forerunner to the SWGFL as it covered a similar geographic area and featured 7 of the 8 SEFNL clubs during its existence.

The South West Gippsland Football League was formed in late 1953, when 5 clubs of the Dandenong Districts Football Association - Beaconsfield, Cranbourne, Officer, Rythdale-Cardinia and Tooradin-Dalmore resigned from it to form a new league^[2]. They would later joined by Berwick and the newly-formed Narre Hallam to form a 7-team competition in 1954^[3].

The league became more suburban as new clubs joined from newly-developed suburbs past Dandenong in Melbourne's south east. Lyndhurst-Hampton Park joined in 1958, Doveton in 1959^[4], Chelsea Heights in 1973^[5] and Devon Meadows in 1977^[6]. Dingley also joined from the South East Suburban FL in 1977^[7]. Country-based clubs began to depart the league during the 1970s. Tooradin-Dalmore left for the West Gippsland FL in 1976, while Officer merged with Rythdale-Cardinia after a year in recess in 1976^[8]. The merged club also moved to the WGFL after two more seasons, 1979.^[8] South Belgrave joined the SWGFL in 1978 after being denied promotion to the Yarra Valley Mountain District FL's first division despite winning two premierships in a row.^[9] They would return to the YVMDFL after a winless 1982 season.^[9]

The 1980s were dominated by Cranbourne and Doveton, who won 10 premierships between them between 1982 and 1991. Cranbourne scored 32.18 (210) against Doveton in the 1986 grand final, which remains one of the highest grand final scores ever recorded^[10].

Beaconsfield and Chelsea Heights both departed the SWGFL after the 1992 season^[11], leaving the league with 8 clubs. Following a VCFL review in 1994, the SWGFL was merged into the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League, with Devon Meadows joining the Southern division and the rest of the SWGFL clubs forming the new Northern division of that competition^[12].

• Official SEFNL website