The association passed three new by-laws at its special meeting on February 7. 

Two of the new by-laws related to granting the Southern Mallee Giants admission into the association while the third saw the official return of 15 and under B competition.

Association president Pauline Butler said the clubs were all excited to see the return of the second 15 and under competition.

“At this stage it still looks like there will be five definite teams,” she said.

“At the meeting the clubs were all given forms to indicate which grades they would be entering, so there is still a possibility it will be a larger competition – until we get those forms back we don’t know. 

“The clubs were all also excited about the Giants joining the association.”

Butler said a fourth proposed by-law that aimed to ensure netball had finished before football on grand final day did not go through.

“When you add the 15 B competition back in it doesn’t allow you a lot of time in the day,” she said.

“We either need to start earlier, reduce breaks or look at how we do presentations on the day. The delegates have gone back to their respective clubs and will hopefully return with some new proposals to look at.”

The proposals would then need to be voted on by all the clubs before they could become by-laws.

“We’re hoping to get it back through fairly quickly so that we can try to finalise it by the start of the season if possible,” Butler said.

Representative squads were also a topic of discussion. Butler said the association was looking to start selections and finalise squads earlier than it had previously done.

“Normally it’s a case of the season starting and then looking to start selections but we’ll be on the front foot a bit more this year,” she said.