COROWA-Rutherglen enters the final round of the Ovens and Murray league season on Saturday under a huge cloud of uncertainty about its future.
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The Roos’ fate ultimately rests in the hands of the AFL North-East Border Commission, but a desire to not field a reserves team next season and create alignments with CDHBU and other district league clubs for surplus senior players each round is meeting strong resistance from rival O and M clubs.
Also, a key plank in the proposed Corowa-Rutherglen and CDHBU alignment _ the Power not fielding an under-14s team_ has been pulled off the table at the 11th hour.
The Roos are poised to complete a second successive winless season with the only ray of hope for the future presently being the club’s under-16 team playing off in the Albury-Wodonga junior league grand final on Sunday.
The Border Mail understands a majority of O and M clubs expressed the view they want the Roos to field a reserves team next season at a club presidents meeting on Wednesday night.
The clubs are fearful their concerns about Corowa-Rutherglen not having reserves are not resonating with the league’s board of directors.
“They (clubs) understand the predicament we are in and some have got reservations about it and some haven’t,” Roos’ president Graham Hosier said.
“It’s still on at the moment, but we’ve tweaked a few things.
“(CDHBU) needs junior footy so you can understand that.”
O and M chairman Graeme Patterson confirmed the board and not the clubs had to make a call whether it supported the Roos’ wish not to have reserves.
The next board meeting is scheduled for September 4.
“It is not a club vote and it will be a board decision,” he said.
“I’m not going to discuss numbers, but what I am prepared to say is the majority of clubs were concerned about the repercussions of the modelling and the ripple effect on how that affects them as clubs.
“The challenge for the board is to look at what you do to help Corowa-Rutherglen sustain themselves as a presence.”
AFL Victoria rules state if a league wants to expel or fine a club for insufficient numbers it must be endorsed by the local commission in the first instance.
CDHBU president Jarrod Hanrahan said the decision to keep an under-14s was about survival.
“The No.1 issue behind the lack of players is a lack of volunteers so if we lost our junior families we might as well shut the doors,” he said.
AFL NEB general manager John O’Donohue said a commission meeting on September 20 would largely determine Corowa-Rutherglen’s immediate future direction.
“We’ve said all along we want to retain an Ovens and Murray presence in that area,” he said.
“But there needs to be changes.
“We want the buy-in of everybody and ultimately the Ovens and Murray board can make decisions in the best interests of the league and want to consult clubs along the way.
“I would think most clubs would rather be prepared for no seconds games rather than thrown on them on a Thursday night.
“To force them to have seconds is not necessarily the best thing for all concerned here.”
Corowa-Rutherglen has forfeited its reserves team three times this season with the most recent being against Wodonga Raiders last round.
