When it comes to loyalty to GameDay, there can be few organizations more willing to embrace the platform’s capabilities than the Picola & District Football Netball League (PDFNL) with their AFL and netball competitions.

GameDay have worked alongside the PDFNL since 2008, when the Australian Football League (AFL) first joined forces with GameDay.

Since then, the entire sport has moved to a new software provider.

But after six months away from GameDay, the PDFNL decided to return, believing that GameDay stood clear of other providers of its kind.

To fully understand the PDFNL’s loyalty to GameDay, it is important to look at their history, current situation and hopes for the future as they continue to embark on an upward trajectory. 

History of the PDFNL

Picola boast a proud 126-year history. 

An Australian rules football and netball league, they currently boast 15 member clubs spread across a large area of Northern Victoria and Southern New South Wales.

From Shepparton in the south to Jerilderie in the North, the PDFNL caters for participation across all ages.

At present, they serve around 1,400 footballers and a similar number of netball players. 

The PDFNL’s football offering is administered through GameDay, whereas netball uses another platform which is mandated by Netball Victoria. 

Working with GameDay

On a week-by-week basis, match administration is looked after by clubs through the GameDay platform. 

Club personnel have worked closely with GameDay and the PDFNL to ensure they fully understand how to use the platform.

From an organisational perspective, GameDay is used for a variety of purposes, including:

• Monitoring the age of the league’s playing members.
• Setting the criteria for finals qualification.
• Providing reporting to media outlets, with the ability to itemise report data to suit the needs of specific outlets.

As Operations Manager Shane Railton explains, the functionality of the GameDay platform continues to make it the only choice for the PDFNL.

“Those sorts of things are really important for us,” he said. 

“It allows us to do a whole lot more monitoring than we are able to do on any other platform. 

“It’s such a flexible system and an amazing fit for us. We had six months away on another system which we were forced to go onto, and we chose to come back really quickly.”

📸 by Riverine Herald

A first-class GameDay service

As an organisation, we understand the importance of acting on feedback from volunteers, clubs and members by speaking to those who use our product on a regular basis.

Not only can club personnel liaise with Railton or visit the GameDay Support Centre, they can also take advantage of our in-platform help guide, in a bid to overcome any obstacles they may be facing.

With such a comprehensive support system in place, Railton admits that club issues in respect of the platform are virtually non-existent.

He added: “Our clubs have gotten so used to doing things now on GameDay. 

“We use different software across different codes, and so the ability of our people to come in and be trained on GameDay is far superior [than other options]. 

“From a club perspective, we don’t have any issues. If you don’t hear of any problems, then the system is obviously working. I’ve never heard from anyone saying they’ve had issues with GameDay, unless it’s their first time using the platform. 

“That’s a natural reaction, but then people who have used it for a few weeks quickly become very comfortable with it.

“Because people at the clubs are getting the answers and support they need, they’re not needing to contact me. 

“It frees up so much time by being able to have such a useful platform.”

GameDay is proud to support its partners throughout the partnership journey, from initial implementation to onboarding support and further discussions with clubs/leagues, as and when required.

Since returning to GameDay after six months away, Railton thought the re-integration with the platform was seamless, despite the initial concerns of having to re-onboard GameDay to the clubs and members.

“The support we received was exceptional. I’ve never had an issue which has run on for a week or 10 days and hasn’t been resolved, so that’s more than reasonable. 

“The system never breaks, and there’s never a situation where you’re completely locked out and can’t do anything. 

“It really is so easy to use, so from our perspective, the support isn’t needed because we’re so accustomed to it.”

Embracing new features

Having worked in partnership with us for more than 15 years, the PDFNL has witnessed much change within GameDay during that time.  

In our mission to further enhance the experience for sports administrators worldwide, new features are regularly introduced – many of which have been embraced by partners such as the PDFNL. 

One specific to the PDFNL is the Player Points Allocation (PPA) system used on the GameDay platform for sports – particularly in Australian football – to manage team salary caps.

“The PPA is critical because it also allows us at league level to turn off the option for clubs to change the PPA values,” Railton explains.

“The other thing which is really critical with GameDay which isn’t available on many other sites is to be able to visit the audit history and see what clubs have been doing, and at which times.

“We’ve noticed clubs that have played an unregistered player, and we’ve been able to go back and use that audit report to see what’s gone on. That’s critical in helping us identify potential breaches.

“We were actually at the forefront of pushing for the QR codes. We’ve probably struggled to get some implementation from clubs, but that’s something we’ll look to work towards next year.”

📸 by Riverine Herald & Daniel Webb

What does the future hold for the PDFNL?

As an independent Australian Rules Football competition, the PDFNL has continued to experience strong growth in participation, further demonstrated by the return of multiple clubs over the past few seasons.

Their finals have seen a year-on-year attendance growth of 10%, while their football numbers have continued to steadily increase following the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“For us, our membership continues to grow,” Railton said. 

“As a league, if we made the decision to split or to expand, I could guarantee that we’d have another five clubs tomorrow joining GameDay. – I have no doubt about that whatsoever.”