Melrose FC strengthen with new recruits but coach Josh Fluss has concerns for AWFA as a whole

Welsh defender Sam Andrew has followed new coach Josh Fluss to the club from Albury United, while former Boomers midfielder Sam Graetz will be pulling on the boots after four years away from the game.

Chris Ryan, Ashley Middleton and Sam McLennan have also committed to Melrose, with Adam McLennan already on board for 2022.

"We're starting to put a team together which I believe will be competitive in most games," Fluss said.

"The way the feel is starting to come around the senior group at the club, we're aiming for the top four.

"The new faces start to give us a bit of a core down the guts and allows us to build with the young fellas who are already there.

"There's a lot of work to do but it shapes into not a bad little team."

Fluss is confident Melrose, who failed to win a game last season, will come back to the pack but he voiced concerns around the league as a whole with several clubs battling for numbers.

"It levels things out, which is a good thing for us, but overall it's really disappointing and I think we need to start banding together as a group of clubs," Fluss said.

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"We need to promote the league and build it back up again.

"It needs to happen, otherwise it's going to keep dropping off every year.

"If you look through the junior sides at a lot of clubs, I don't believe they're very strong at the moment so the gap between the boys who are playing seniors now to the next crop of players coming through seems to be fairly big right now.

"I know there's a lot of miniroos but that's 10 years off.

"Even in our group, we've got some older heads that'll only be around for a couple of years.

"We've got to start having a look at it, brainstorming ways we can promote it and get more people into the sport to start with, no matter what the quality is."

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