Women's football will soon replace the reserve grade in the Ovens and Murray league.
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That's the view of league chairman David Sinclair, who admits the number of O and M players heading out to the nearby bush leagues will reach a tipping point.
"There's a lot of talk about the reserves competition and there's no doubt numbers at that level are suffering," he said.
"I can see a time when a day of O and M football will consist of a senior game, a women's game, an under-18 or under-21 game and maybe an under-16 game of male football and female football.
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"I don't think that's too far away - somewhere in the next five to seven years I can see those changes happening.
"It's getting harder to retain players in the Ovens and Murray if they're not playing senior football.
"It's much easier for them to go out to these competitions, perhaps get a dollar they wouldn't be able to get playing reserves football and not necessarily have the commitment that an O and M club would expect when they're playing in the Tallangatta league or the Hume league.
There's a lot of talk about the reserves competition and there's no doubt numbers at that level are suffering.
- David Sinclair
"That's just part of the football landscape and every major league across Victoria has got these district leagues sitting around them and probably doing the same thing to their respective reserves competitions.
"It's something we have to work through. I can see a time when an O and M club will pick their senior side and the 10 players who miss out might go back and play with a district league club and the reserves competition is a thing of the past and it becomes a game of women's football.
"It's going to become harder for clubs to retain 50 players on their list and have a senior side and be putting 25-30 players into a reserve side."
Sinclair believes the success of AFLW is a precursor to women's football becoming increasingly prominent in regional Australia.
"There's no doubt with the growth of women's football that at some point it needs to be part of the O and M landscape and in time, it will happen," he said.
"One of the issues at the moment is we just haven't got the facilities at clubs to be able to run male and female games on the same day.
"The local (women's) competition is auspiced by AFL North East Border but I think, in time, will become part of the O and M landscape.
"There are more and more clubs now putting sides into that NEB competition and there's more money becoming available both through the Victoria and New South Wales state governments and the AFL for clubs to provide female changing rooms."
