ABC News | A Victorian sports administrator says football clubs are stuck in the dark ages and need to move away from their "antiquated" structures if they want to halt the decline of the game.
Stuart Craig from Sports Focus, a regional sports assembly that provides strategic direction to clubs and leagues, said the AFL Commission needed to review the structure of local footy and consider merging leagues.
Mr Craig said he has been asking the AFL Central Victoria Commission for a few years about what its strategy is and what it wants football and netball to look like in 2030.
"I don't want to sound the death knell of local football and netball, but we've got to think differently," he said.
"I believe there are six leagues now that are not sustainable, and half the clubs who are coming to us at the start of each season are saying, 'Stuart, how do we wind up?'.
"I'm fielding those calls now."
Mr Craig said that in Central Victoria there were too many clubs in a small geographical area.