BRENDAN LINES
RIVERLAND Football League chairman Shane Uren will vacate the league’s top job after taking up a role with the SANFL.
The outgoing chairman announced his appointment last Saturday publicly, however Uren said he is yet to officially accept the role of football operations co-ordinator.
“As I’ve said to the SANFL on Saturday I’ve had to step away from the role as chair,” he said.
“I’ve had to actually make it public to attract potential people to fill my role as chairman.”
The RFL will meet at a special general meeting next month to decide its next chair.
The sudden departure leaves the position wide open, though Uren said he had already “spoken to a couple of people about the possibility of them stepping up.”
“We (RFL) do have someone in mind that is going to be nominated,” he said.
But if there is someone else out there then by all means they can be nominated by a club.”
After his long-term involvement with Riverland football spanning over 20 years Uren said the decision to depart was challenging.
“Personally, I was excited and it was easy but I was also very conflicted because obviously I had to vacate the Riverland Football League chair.” he said.
“And finding people in these positions can be quite difficult.”
Uren leaves the role after two years having steered the league through its most difficult time.
“I was only in the seat for just over a year and we had the COVID pandemic strike a blow to local footy.
“But I feel that’s left me in pretty good stead going forward in my new role to assist anyone else.”
It will be Uren’s role to help clubs across the Riverland, River Murray and Mallee football leagues.
“It’s an administration role for teams to alleviate the pressures from volunteers in those football leagues,” he said.
“I’ll be doing a lot of work that volunteer secretaries do for those leagues.”
Uren said his number one priority is to help clubs retain their volunteer bases.
“The biggest concern for me was the retention of not only players but club volunteers,” he said.
“Having a season of senior football to come back and play is priority one for the commission and myself.
“To get as many footballers and volunteers to get clubs up and going at least as they were before COVID.”