Beechworth coach Shaun Pritchard's claim that the club could fold in the near future due to a player shortage has been allayed by the league.
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The Bushrangers posted a call to arms on their Facebook site on Monday night after numbers for the reserves dipped to a dangerous level.
"At this stage we won't field a reserve grade side," Pritchard said.
"It's only early days (following the post), I hope over the next week we can get a response.
If we can't field two sides I'm not sure the Tallangatta league would allow it.
- Shaun Pritchard
"It's a sad situation and looking at the bigger picture, once it's gone, it's going to be very hard to get it back up and running again."
Pritchard was asked if the club could fold if it couldn't field a reserves.
"It could well do, if we can't field two sides I'm not sure the Tallangatta league would allow it," he said.
However, league manager Gavin Rendell quickly eased the club's concerns.
"They wouldn't be forced out," he said.
"Technically they should have (all grades), but Mitta (United) didn't have under 14s last year while Wodonga Saints didn't have an under 17s."
The Bushrangers cited three reasons for their shortage, with a loss of players to other clubs, the departure of juniors to the Ovens and Murray and the Victorian Government's decision last August to suspend the prisoner day release program.
Beechworth had two senior players and four reserves under the program last year.
The club wrote to Minister for Corrections Ben Carroll on Friday, outlining its support.
"It's not only the fact they provide players for us, we figure we provide a really essential service in rehabilitating the players," president John Thistleton said.
The TDFL says it hasn't heard from the club and Rendell will be encouraging opposition clubs to adopt the equalisation rules, which allows games to proceed with only 14 players.
The competition starts on March 30.
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