Murray United forced to pull the pin on NPL 3 senior team

The Border outfit made the difficult decision to withdraw its NPL 3 license on Thursday night.

A lack of players at under-20 and under-18 level was the underlying issue for Murray United as both sides were required to be filled in order to field a senior team in the competition.

Murray United chairman Darren Yates said the club had explored all possible options and exhausted all avenues until it could not meet the required targets.

"The senior program will go into recess for the 2020 season and we will openly explore all possible options for future high performance pathway for senior men and women in the Albury-Wodonga region in the months ahead, including possible future admission into the Victorian State League or possible partnerships with other NPL regional clubs," he said.

"The recess of our NPL senior program follows many similar examples in regional locations over the past two years, which is a challenge for national, state and local football administrators to overcome to ensure regional communities are not disadvantaged into the future."

IN OTHER NEWS:

Rivals clubs in the Victorian NPL and AWFA outfits are set to circle on contracted players on the eve of the season.

Reigning Murray United best and fairest Tom Youngs is tipped to accept an offer from an NPL club.

The classy Englishman burst on the scene in 2018 by winning the AWFA Star Player award in his debut season at Myrtleford.

He took the step up to NPL 2 with Murray United last year and showed he was more than up to it, winning the club's top awards, as well as the golden boot with 16 goals.

Wangaratta defender Stoycho Ivanov has returned to the Red Devils after featuring in Murray's pre-season clash against Oakleigh Cannons a fortnight ago, while Azia Feltrin has also gone back to his home club Myrtleford.

However, it's not all doom and gloom with Murray United's junior program at full capacity and set to continue in 2020.

"We will continue to have a strong focus on our high-performing junior program and giving our junior boys and girls aged between five and 16 years the best possible development platform to fully reach their potential and participate in Football Victoria state teams at the national titles, Football Victoria's NTC program, Football Victoria TIDC program and the Melbourne Victory Pre-Academy program, as well as exposing our junior NPL players to A-League clubs in the NPL junior competition," Mr Yates said.

"The depth and quality of our junior squads, players and coaches, is stronger than ever and we are very encouraged with the progress we are making toward our club vision and purpose of producing future Socceroos and Matildas as evidenced by our former player Alec Mills making his debut for the Australian Under 18 team last year."