Weekly Times | WOOMELANG Lascelles members will be asked to consider the option to fold and disband its supporters to other clubs.
The North West Structural Review conducted by several AFL Victoria commissions has recommended the Cats’ league, Mallee, disband at the end of the season.
Woomelang Lascelles has been advised to merge with neighbouring Sea Lake-Nandaly and join the Central Murray league.
The other options of separately joining either the Golden Rivers or North Central leagues were not preferred by the review panel.
Woomelang Lascelles vice president Tim McClelland said those recommendations would be presented to the club’s members at a meeting, likely to be held next week.
But they will also be asked to consider if the club should fold and its members disband into other nearby clubs.
McClelland said the club had members based 100km west of it, so joining a league further east was “putting more and more pressure on our members”.
“If we haven’t got a natural home and we’re not happy with a merger, the option will be there that we can just let everybody go their separate ways,” he said.
“I think it would have to be considered equally with the other options, really, because we are covering such a huge area in our membership.”
During the review process the Cats proposed forming a competition with two football teams and two netball teams per club, but it was not positively reviewed.
McClelland said club representatives were disappointed their future was in “jeopardy through no fault of our own”.
“This review and several clubs wanting to leave our league last year and this year has really put us in a vulnerable position,” he said.
“It would be a lot easier for us to swallow if we were in this position of our own doing, but we’ve been put in this position mostly by others around us.”
A merger has also been recommended for Walpeup-Underbool and Ouyen United before joining the Sunraysia league for next season.
All clubs involved in the review have until the end of the month to respond.
