Having trialled the joint operation over the last two years, the Swampies voted at their AGM to formally become one club.

"It's huge," vice-president Millie Bourke said.

"I don't think people actually realise how significant it is.

"It should have been done 10 years ago but the biggest issue was that we didn't have the people who understood both.

"I'm not just there for netball, I have a partner who plays senior football and siblings who play junior footy so I understand what it takes to run a football club.

"Neither one of us is going to survive without the other so you have to work together.

"We understand that footballers need to be paid.

"There's a salary cap, that's how it runs, but we haven't missed out on anything in the last three years.

"They paid for our new uniforms at the start of this year, they helped us out with extra funding for the courts and if anything, we've benefited from joining the football and netball clubs together."

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So with both sides already working well together, what difference with the merger make in real terms?

"A lot of people thought we already were amalgamated but with sponsorship, we tended to miss out," Bourke explained.

"They'd say 'we've already given money to the football club' but we were separate so we didn't see any of those funds.

"Now we've shown what we can do when we join together.

"The boys got new lighting this year, we're getting brand new clubrooms at the start of next year and we've got brand new courts, so everything's going to be fresh and new for next season together."

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