David Sinclair hails 'critical' return of Corowa-Rutherglen as Ovens and Murray's 10th team

That was the word David Sinclair used to describe the significance of Corowa-Rutherglen's return to play in 2024.

The Ovens and Murray chairman spoke of his relief at escaping the 'cumbersome' bye which bedevilled this year after his competition was reduced from 10 teams to nine.

League officials always maintained their No.1 priority was to see the Roos return, rather than chase a replacement club, so Sinclair's delight was understandable as he addressed the media on Friday morning.

"It's absolutely critical," Sinclair said.

"The draw last year really was a train wreck.

"By the time we found out Corowa were going into recess, we'd put the draw out there.

"We considered changes but we felt, given that it had been out there for two or three months, we would go with the bye that Corowa not playing was going to create.

"It's been such a stop-start season, it's been difficult for clubs.

"Wodonga copped two periods through the year when they never played football for three weeks, which was really unfair to them.

"Nine clubs is a really difficult number to work with; it creates a bye.

"We know when we want to start and we know when we want to finish and it's about constructing the draw around that.

"We'll start at Easter this year and we'll finish on the same weekend so that's a 22-week season trying to fit 18 rounds in.

"If you're trying to do that with another two byes, you've got to have general byes or split rounds plus two club byes which is just not ideal.

"Ten is almost the perfect number for any football league.

"We can have 18 rounds, everybody plays each other once and it's a nice fit into the length of the season.

"Ten can leave you vulnerable, if you lose a club, and if any club was out there knocking on our door to be the 11^th club, we'd be all over it.

"But that was the difficulty, once we went to nine.

"If Corowa didn't come back, there was no-one out there that was obvious that was going to be able to come in as a 10^th club."

Sinclair admitted he did have his doubts about the Roos' ability to pull off their 'reset' but was hugely impressed with the efforts he witnessed behind the scenes at John Foord Oval.

"It was a real shock when we were told they were going into recess," Sinclair said.

"At that point in time, I thought once you do that it's going to be really difficult to come back.

"But working with Graham (Hosier) and seeing what Ro (Black) and the board were doing, I had no doubt they were going to leave no stone unturned to get back.

"We began to have doubts when we heard about meetings that were happening with other football clubs within the region (about possible mergers) as to whether it was going to happen or not.

"But there's no doubt the Corowa region have missed their football club, the town's missed their football club and they know what it means to the community.

THE RETURN OF COROWA-RUTHERGLEN

"From an Ovens and Murray point of view, we need representation in the western side of the league and that area needs representation in the Ovens and Murray.

"A lot of people out there had real doubts about whether this was going to happen or not.

"I was asked so many times across the season 'do you think Corowa will be back?' and I was saying 'they will' and the person asking me the question had their doubts as to whether it was going to happen.

"So I'm really pleased to be able to sit here today and make the announcement, along with Corowa, that they will be back in 2024."

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