By Roy Ward
DOVETON Eagles will play in the Southern Football League this season after a majority of the clubs voted for their return.
The Eagles, who play in division 3, were suspended from the SFL in February after the league found they had failed to address serious racism claims from their elimination final loss to Southern Dragons last season.
But a vote by attending clubs in a league meeting on Monday night let the Eagles return under a set of ‘‘strong recommendations.’’
The Eagles also have a new club administration and have offered to protect umpires with security guards and ground marshalls.
SFL football operations manager Matt Duck said any details of the umpires protection was yet to be finalised but the Eagles’ administration were ‘‘adamant’ about providing better protection for umpires.
He said any security guards would appear at the club’s expense while ground marshalls would come from club supporters who went through a screening process.
‘‘The use of security guards hasn’t been locked in but the club has been adamant they want to go in that way and we support that as a concept,’’ Duck said.
Duck wouldn’t reveal the full result of the secret ballot of clubs or how many division 3 clubs supported the Eagles’ return.
‘‘It was a majority but not a landslide,’’ he said of the league-wide vote.
Duck said the SFL had asked for a series of measures from the Eagles involving behaviour, player education and safety of umpires.
The SFL division 3 schedule had retained the Eagles in the event they were allowed back into the league and Duck said only one or two players had transferred away from the club so he expected they would field both seniors and reserves sides when the season begins in April 14.
Read more on the Eagles return and see our SFL division 3 season preview in Monday’s Greater Dandenong Weekly.
