SOME presidents of the remaining clubs who haven't withdrawn from playing this year will seek clarification from AFL Riverina on whether players from other regions will be allowed to play.
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In another day of upheaval on Thursday, Coolamon's unexpected withdrawal from senior football and netball reduced the number of clubs to six, throwing the proposed AFL Riverina Championship into some doubt.
Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong, Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlake, Leeton-Whitton, Turvey Park, Wagga Tigers and Osborne are the last teams standing as AFL Riverina works feverishly to start a proposed season by next weekend.
The Hoppers identified the mandatory exclusion of non-Riverina based players and coaches as their main criteria to be met in order for the club to commit to playing.
Victorian players are now unable to play after the NSW border was closed, and while AFL Riverina has issued a 'strong recommendation' players don't travel to and from Border towns, are legally unable to enforce it as a rule.
Clubs have indicated they have no intention of trying to lure any more Border talent after the recommendation was put in place, but want clearer clarification on whether players they'd already recruited can be involved.
MCUE have lured a number of out-of-town recruits, and president Jesse Cunningham said they will work with AFL Riverina to see if some common ground can be reached.
"We are going to have to seek clarity with AFL Riverina. We've got a few proposed ideas we're thinking of as a club, and we'll provide those to them," he said.
Turvey Park president Steven Marks said they will seek further information before giving potential Albury recruits a firm answer on whether they can accommodate them.
"We had two young fellas from North Albury that were interested in coming up and playing with us, we might seek a bit more clarity on that," Marks said.
"They (AFL Riverina) are strongly recommending we don't use these players, and we haven't told them they're definites or anything like that, but we've told them we want to talk to AFL Riverina to find out where we should go with that.
"We certainly won't be seeking any other players from that area, these players originally approached us anyway.
"We assume the Border people will be 100 per cent out and we've already told them they probably won't be able to get a game with us but we will seek clarity on that."
AFL Canberra clubs are also seeking clarity on rulings before allowing players to travel.
The AFL Riverina Championship is scheduled to start next weekend.
