THE Mininera and District Football League (MDFL) has a new president following the league’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday night.

Former Glenthompson-Dunkeld Football Netball Club president, Dale Bruns, has taken on the role after John Box announced last month he would be stepping down after five years in the position.

Bruns said his time as Rams president helped prepare him and was excited to take on the new challenge.

“I was president for Glenthompson-Dunkeld for three years and treasurer for three years before that, I stepped aside there and when I did that it was flagged to me about would I be interested in joining the league board,” he said.

“I have a young family now, so I just thought while I have a young family and we aren’t travelling for kids sport, I can give 100 per cent.”

Community football has been a big part of Bruns’ life and he enjoys being involved in the different processes behind the scenes.

He said the family nature of the MDFL was one of the main drawcards and hoped to build on that reputation going forward.

“Football has been in my family for generations, I have grown up with it since I was born and I suppose out of all the leagues and clubs, the Mininera league has one of the best family aspects to it, and that is something I would like to continue on and build upon.”

Bruns, who lives in Dunkeld, has only had minimal time to experience what it is like on the league board, due to COVID restricting the amount of football played in the past two years.

He said he remained confident he had the skillset to settle into the role.

“I have only been on the board for two years, the first year we didn’t have any football and this year it was fairly limited,” he said.

“I am prepared though, one thing I want to do is work with clubs.

“The only way to make things work is good communication with clubs, if we keep the communication levels up and be on the front foot with what we are doing, I think that will be the best way forward.

“I think one of the biggest challenges is our juniors, they are our future and due to COVID and a few other particular reasons, we have lost a few junior teams, but that would be one of my main focuses.

“We have got to get juniors back on the field.

“Umpires are the other main area we need to focus on as well.”

With the league coming out of the COVID period in a positive financial position, he said he had a few big plans for his tenure, including the possible amalgamation of the MDFL and the Mininera and District Netball Association into one entity.

“I would like to sit down with the netball association, especially with everything pointing towards equality, so joining together under the one board and operate as one, as opposed to two,” he said.

“I would love to see us join together, we’d halve the volunteer load and we’d have just the one board for everything.”

Box will remain on the board for one more year before stepping down from the administration.