WODONGA Raiders president John Lewis has backed the call for the Tallangatta and District Football League grand final to be brought into Wodonga and played at a superior venue to Sandy Creek.
The Tallangatta league asked Raiders and Wodonga Bulldogs late last year to crunch the numbers to host its grand final at Birallee Park or John Flower Oval.
Lewis said the Raiders presented their case to the Tallangatta league, but he was not aware of any serious follow-up discussions before the competition voted 7-4 to keep the grand final at Sandy Creek.
As part of their proposal, Raiders wanted to retain the profits from the bar in their social rooms, but were happy to hand over the rest of the facility for the day.
“I think there is a case to bring the grand final into town,” Lewis said.
“You’ve got to try and play it on the best ground possible.
“If you look what has happened in the Ovens and King, it’s been a great success down there and other leagues do need to look at it.
“If an approach comes again from the Tallangatta league we will certainly look at it.
“It would be something that would be a financial advantage to the club and we always look at those situations and Wodonga would as well.”
Meanwhile, the Raiders remain in contention to host an Ovens and Murray final again this season despite the ground surface being bereft of grass cover.
Lewis revealed the ground had not been oversown in the off-season and rain had left the centre chopped up.
The Raiders have tried to protect the centre square area with covers in recent weeks.
“At the end of last year we had to make some hard and tough decisions about where we were going this year,” Lewis said.
“The reason why the oversow has been done in the past is it makes the ground look green and attractive to get a final.
“The decision we made this year was we would rather play finals than host them.
“It is a perfect surface, but the ground has just browned off.
“We are in an unfortunate situation where we do have to cover ground costs.
“We’ve seen a 200 per cent increase on the cost of maintaining the ground over the past three or four years and there are other clubs in the league who don’t have to pay for their ground upkeep.
“It is a Wodonga thing and for instance the Wangaratta clubs don’t pay for the upkeep of their grounds.”
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