The Roos’ struggle to attract players continues and the club’s extremely limited reserves outfit may be forced to play a modified game with less than 18 men against the Hoppers at Bunton Park.

Senior coach Terry Burgess said the club is “on the cusp” in the numbers situation.

“We’ll probably know a bit more at training this week, but being honest if they do play it will be a modified game, which we’re allowed to do under the rules,” he said.

“It’s just a struggle with numbers to try and get people to come in and play O and M footy, particularly when a club’s down a little bit.

“It’s not an easy fix, we’ve just got to hang in there.”

Burgess said the shortage is a combination of the club’s recent results, the level of competition and the player numbers in the area.

“The AFL North East Border cluster report says there’s 25 jumpers not getting filled every week across all the teams in the little cluster, hence why there is a shortage in some areas,” Burgess said.

“We’ve got them at reserves level, Coreen has got them at junior level, Rutherglen is not too bad, Wahgunyah is not too bad, but if we were to be okay and Coreen were okay, it would be more likely the other two would be down.

“There’s some talks going on between the clubs in the cluster area trying to nut out some ideas and possible solutions moving forward for football in general, not just the one particular club, that will be sustainable for the next five to 10 years.

“The population is moving towards the bigger towns because of schooling and employment, because that’s where the opportunities are and it’s putting pressure on the smaller towns.

“There’s not enough people playing the game anymore, people’s priorities have changed.

“Footy has probably slipped to number four now, you’ve got work, family and options in front of footy and it has taken its toll a bit.”

Burgess admits there will have to be less teams in the future to make those numbers sustainable for smaller football clubs.