Hume league president Phil Bouffler has expressed his disappointment in the Murray Magpies not having any juniors this season for the third year in a row.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
All 12 clubs are set to have a full complement of juniors in thirds and fourths this season with the exception of Murray Magpies and Lockhart.
Murray Magpies will have no juniors while Lockhart who won the fourths grand final last season, won't have thirds.
"Murray Magpies not having juniors for three years is far from ideal," Bouffler said.
"The league will be taking steps to ensure that the Magpies remedy the situation.
"We realise that they are trying but as a league we can't stress enough the importance of having juniors.
"We want a successful club based in Albury.
"Good luck to them, they won their first senior match on the weekend for more than a year.
"That is all well and good for the seniors.
"But Murray Magpies is a club, it's not just one grade and that's why they have to focus on getting juniors."
Murray Magpies president Ted Miller said the club had tried its hardest to attract juniors over the off-season without any luck.
"We had to forfeit on the weekend but we will give it a few more weeks before we make a final decision," Miller said.
"I've had a few more inquiries from kids looking for a game in the thirds... but it's going to be a battle.
"We started off with about nine kids who wanted to play thirds.
"A couple of the bigger kids in the thirds played in the reserves on the weekend.
"But we have now lost a couple to rugby as well.
"We will still give it a few more weeks because there might be some kids that get cut from the Albury clubs in the AWJFL and are looking for a game.
"We are still advertising for juniors."
POINTS PRESSURE
Without juniors coming through the ranks, the Magpies are forced to recruit players for its senior side which creates pressure in regards to player points.
Miller said the Magpies were well under their points allocation on the weekend when they notched their first win in more than a season against Henty.
"It is tough not having those local one point players but it's not affecting us at the moment," he said.
"It has in the past though.
"When we did have juniors previously, I found a lot of the thirds would want to go and play under-18s in the O&M or just drop off and not play.
"Living in town, a lot of them get jobs and decide to work on weekends as well.
"But as far as points this year because we finished on the bottom we have got 41 points compared to the normal 37.
"We also applied for extra points and got another four, so we have 45 points.
"We had 36 points in our win on the weekend, so we are well below our allocated points."
