It was a historic moment when the Rumbalara Football Netball Club hosted its first-ever grand final this year.
It was a historic moment when the Rumbalara Football Netball Club hosted its first-ever grand final this year.Four football and eight netball matches were played at the Rumbalara grounds on Murray Football Netball League grand final day, with more than 5000 people through the gates. Event organiser Kylie Briggs said hosting the grand final was an important milestone for the club.
“We were very proud,” Kylie said. “It was the first time that an event like that had been hosted by an indigenous community.”
“We introduced a cultural ceremony to the start of the senior football and netball games; we had a smoking ceremony and an acknowledgment to country in language.”
“That was the first time the league has had something like that as a part of the event.” Kylie said volunteers were key to the event’s success. “It was a great team effort,” she said. “We had to co-ordinate the parking, we had the lunch function we were catering for, we had to have people over at netball and football just to make sure everything was okay and we had to man the score boards.”
In the lead up to the big day, Kylie said there was also loads of behind the scenes work to be done to ensure the grounds were immaculate. “We wanted to really show off our facilities and in terms of an event, what it’s capable of,” she said. “We did upgrades to our netball courts; we concreted around the edges of the courts and opened them up.”
“The side gate became the main entrance for the grand final so there was a fair bit of work that had to be done there. Plus just general touch-ups.” Rumba’s newly installed electronic netball scoreboards were also a big hit with the crowd. Kylie said the club was also funded by VicHealth to conduct an economic impact report on the grand final.
“We’re still finalising that report but hopefully it’s got some good feedback.”
