Bright's push for a new home in the Tallangatta District Football and Netball leagues is on track after nine of 12 clubs voted to welcome the O&K side into the fold.

A TDFL delegates meeting was held on Monday night as executives from the league and its clubs had their say on whether to accept United Bright Football Netball Club into the Tallangatta league.

TDFL president Jarrod Stephenson said nine of the 12 clubs voted in favour of the move, as well as the league’s executives.

“As far as we're concerned, it's on track,” he said

“They’re going to evaluate what impact it’s going to have on the region down there but from our perspective I can’t see any reason why you could possibly block it.”

Bright have applied to transfer from the O&K to the TDFL and TDNA in order to safeguard the retention of their junior footballers and netballers through the grades.

If Bright's bid is accepted, the TDFL must lodge an Intent to Accept Form to the O&K, AFL Victoria and Netball Victoria by 5pm on 31 July, on receipt of which the governing bodies have 14 days to notify the leagues of the objection process.

Stephenson said the Tallangatta league intended to submit their form by the end of this week.

If the O&K objects to the transfer, which appears likely, it will go to an appeals process.

Stephenson said a final decision would then be expected to be made by the end of August.

This switch to the Tallangatta league is the second bite of the apple for Bright who were knocked back in a previous bid to join the league in 2012.

Stephenson said the three clubs who weren’t in support of the club’s move on Monday night had concerns around travel.

“I think they spoke to the Bright guys and once they realised the way they run things and they won't have to start as early and things like that, they were probably okay with it in the end,” he said.

“The AFL’s process has got to be followed from here but I can’t see it being dragged out for too long.”

One of the Tallangatta league clubs supporting the move included Beechworth, who were one of the latest to have joined the league from the O&K in 2004.

Having gone through the process themselves, former Beechworth president Adam Fendyk and current co-president Emma Carey said they sympathised with Bright’s situation, and were right behind the proposal.

“Our transfer was primarily around the juniors,” Fendyk said.

“The O&K at the time had thirds playing to some extent, the teams were dropping off and within a number of years of us leaving there was a couple of amalgamations, and the number of teams dropped.

“Our kids might’ve been going to Bright one week and we were playing in Chiltern or vice versa.

“We saw the Tallangatta league had a strong junior presence in both 14s and 17s, and the under 12s are playing now too, so we’ve gone from two and a half teams on a Saturday to five.

“At club level, we saw almost immediate financial benefit, having more teams playing on the one day in football and the increase in games of netball back in the day.

“Membership grew straight away, of course, and gates and catering and bar turnover along the way with more spectators turning up to watch more teams.”

Carey said Bright had done their homework, and had been working to ingratiate themselves within their potential new home league.

“They actually came out, when we were at Rutherglen, they came out, just doing the rounds on their bye weekend to try and catch as many clubs as they could just to let us know of their intentions in person to seek support from local clubs,” she said.

“They’ve been sending us a bit of information, keeping clubs in the loop.

“I know they went out to the opening of the courts at Sandy Creek to try and engage netball as well.

“They’re doing it for the same reasons we did it, we came in for the exact same reasons, so our committee supported it.

“Having an extra bye, if I’m honest, that’s great, we don’t see that as a negative, another rest weekend is good.”