The Bellarine Football Netball League (BFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in the Bellarine Peninsula region of Victoria, Australia. Established in 1971 as the Bellarine & District Football League, the competition was formed out of the ashes of the Polwarth Football League, which had six of its former teams join.
The competition was renamed the Bellarine Football League in 1986, and finally the Bellarine Football Netball League in 2011 when the local netball competition was administratively aligned with the football competition for the first time. Prior to 2011, netball clubs competed in a competition overseen by the Bellarine District Netball Association.
In March 2024, following extensive consultation[1] AFL Barwon detailed a plan for expanding the BFNL to 12 teams from 2025 with a path for a team to accept an invitation for promotion to the GFNL, replacing a club that would then be relegated from the GFNL.[2]
The winner of the best on ground award is presented with the Josh Finch Medal, named in honour of the Modewarre games record holder who retired at the conclusion of the 2025 season with a record four Les Ash Medals to his name. The award's renaming was announced during the 2025 Ash Medal presentation night.[3]
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Team also won the minor premiership for finishing on top of the ladder
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Player also won the Les Ash Medal as the best and fairest in the league
The Les Ash Medal, named after the late longtime Bellarine football administrator, is presented to the league's best and fairest player at the conclusion of the home-and-away season. It was first named after Ash in 1989; previously it was known simply as the Best and Fairest Medal. Two players have won the award on four occasions – Modewarre's Josh Finch, whose honours spanned seven seasons throughout the 2010s, and Torquay's James Darke, whose period of success overlapped with Finch to claim the award across nine seasons. Both Finch and Darke are also members of a group of five players who have won the award in consecutive seasons.
The Stephen "Chooka" Piec Medal is presented to the player who has kicked the most goals at the conclusion of the home-and-away season. Previously known as the Leading Goalkicker Award, the medal was named in honour of Piec at the 2025 Ash Medal presentation night.[46] Piec, described as "a poster boy for the Bellarine in its formative years", solely held the record for the most titles (four) until 2025, when Geelong Amateur's Mitch Day also won a fourth title upon his return to the BFNL following a stint with Lara. The magical century-mark of goals has been reached 14 times throughout the regular season. Dominant Torquay forward Wayne Tyquin's three-year run of 349 cumulative goals from 1997 to 1999 capped off a five-year consecutive period where the league had at least one centurion. Overlap between the Piec Medal and Ash Medal is rare; only two players (Torquay's Mark Browne in 1986 and Day in 2015) have collected both honours in the same season.
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Player also won the Les Ash Medal as the best and fairest in the league
Cat Country – History of Football In The Geelong Region – John Stoward – ISBN9780957751583
Notes
1 2 3 4 Only 12 games were played due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
↑ Drysdale's Ben Fennell polled 22 votes to lead the count, but was ruled ineligible due to a reprimand he received for an incident in the Hawks' round 17 match against Torquay.
↑ Cooke, Nikki (9 September 2011). "A Grade Hot Shot Winner". Football & Netball Geelong. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
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