A crippling player shortage prompted the Glenroy-based club to pull out of its Division 1 men's clash away to Cobram on Saturday as well as the Division 2 men's and women's games against the same opposition.

Boomers president Matt Burt described the situation as 'untenable' with 20 male players unavailable due to injury, illness, work commitments and personal reasons.

Burt, 44, and over-35s goalkeeper Greg McGillivray would both have been pressed into action against the title-chasing Roar.

League officials have the power to issue a $500 fine when a senior men's game is forfeited, with all other grades carrying a potential $200 fine.

The case is due to discussed by clubs at an AWFA management committee meeting on Monday night.

"It would be very disappointing, in the circumstances, if AWFA chose to impose fines," Burt said.

"The three grades could cost the club $900 so we don't take these decisions lightly given the potential consequences for the club.

"Up until Thursday night, we were going to field a team for Div 1 men but it just got to a point where it became untenable.

"We already had 17 players out and then another three told us they were unavailable for Saturday.

"Of the 12 remaining players, one of them is brand new to football this year and he's simply not up to senior grade standard.

"Two wouldn't have been able to play reserve-grade finals if they'd played another senior game, so that left us with nine players, including me, and 10 if our 35s goalkeeper had agreed to play.

"Two of the senior grade players were carrying niggles and when you've got players on the field such as myself, who have seen better days and don't move as quickly as they used to, those other players are going to have to work harder, which could consequently cause injury or unnecessary load on their body.

"A perfect storm was brewing and, unfortunately, this was the week it hit."

IF YOU LIKED THIS:

AWFA president Greg Scott spelt out the situation.

"There needs to be a certain amount of notice for a forfeit and if there's not, a fine may apply," he said.

"The fine is higher for Div 1 men because that's the benchmark and the showcase of our competition.

"It's disappointing, there's no question about it, but we need to be understanding of the position Boomers are in.

"They only have Div 1 and Div 2 men's teams, they don't have Div 3 or under-16 boys to draw players from so it does make it more difficult for them than some other clubs when they encounter these circumstances.

"To have 20 players unavailable out of a squad of 32, for two teams, makes it really hard.

"Talking to people within the club, I know they worked really hard to get some teams on the park but it just wasn't possible."

Burt issued this message to Boomers' critics.

"We don't pay our players and we don't have contracts with our players," Burt said.

"If a player says to us they've got family or personal commitments or other sporting commitments, which means they can't play, we can't force them to show up.

"Who are we as an amateur sporting body to argue with these people?

"There's nothing we can do about that.

"But the work commitment thing, while disappointing, wasn't the reason and it's certainly not because it was a game in Cobram and people didn't want to travel.

"That's got nothing to do with it.

"It was simply a case that we didn't have enough players available.

"I'm surprised it hasn't happened to us or another club prior to this.

"We were left with no other option.

"If it had been earlier in the season, it's possible we might have looked to postpone and reorganise the fixture but the reality is there's three weeks of the season left and to get guys to travel down to Cobram in midweek, when a lot of them have full-time jobs and family commitments, it was pretty impractical to make that happen so we took the difficult decision to forfeit.

"It's not something we wanted to do as a club, it's just an unfortunate set of circumstances.

"Any club, if they've got two-thirds of their playing group unavailable, is going to struggle to field teams.

"There's no ifs, buts or maybes about that."

Cobram have been awarded three points for each of the forfeited fixtures, meaning they are four points behind Division 1 leaders Albury United ahead of Sunday's title showdown at Apex Reserve.

"It's a very close competition in the men's, which is fantastic," Scott said.

"While United are a little bit ahead, they are no certainties and they've got a tough run home, so it'll be a really interesting last few weeks.

"Positions in the top eight are up for grabs and I think there's going to be some really good matches.

"We certainly encourage all clubs to do everything they can to play and I know a number of clubs have had players playing in multiple games over the weekend to ensure they can do that.

"We understand this is potentially going to have a little bit of a difference because players might be out with COVID and it's the first full season for a while, so there might be more injuries than normal, but we encourage all clubs to fill as many grades as they can.

"I'm encouraged by the fact all clubs have pretty much done that up to this point.

"Melrose having all those kids playing on Sunday was amazing and they had an amazing result.

"It's great for those youngsters to come up and get that experience, so all kudos to Melrose for doing that and I certainly encourage all clubs to look at that avenue if they're a little bit short."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: