AFL Barwon general manager Lee Hartman said the review, labelled “Project 2015”, was designed to promote growth and help level out lopsided competitions. The review takes in the Geelong, Bellarine and Geelong and District senior football leagues.

Hartman said a review of competition structures had been on the agenda of the reg­ion’s former administration body Football Geelong for some time.

“In the past we could only make recommendations to the Victorian Country Football League and they would be the ones who would decide,” he said.

“But now the AFL Barwon commission has the ability to actually change the structure.”

Hartman said the working party, of which he is a member, was considering a three or four division structure that would see struggling clubs move down to a grade suited to their ability, giving them an opportunity to rebuild.

Battling Geelong Football League club North Shore and Bellarine league clubs Newcomb Power and Portarlington would likely be the first candidates to be dropped to a lower division.

North Shore has collected three wooden spoons and won just 10 games in the past five seasons and is winless this year.

Newcomb Power also has three wooden spoons since 2009. Portarlington has the other two.

Last month, Portarlington, sitting in ninth position on the 10-team ladder, belted the last-placed Power by 26 goals.

Hartman said the review had garnered plenty of support among Geelong’s football community.

“They all know there has been big gaps in competitiveness in all the leagues and they finally understand that leagues aren’t just about their own club,” he said.

“But it’s one of those things: everyone seems to support it unless it’s their club in the gun.”

The Geelong and District league has already voiced its opposition to a restructure.

The 12-team competition is affiliated with AFL Barwon, but unlike the Geelong and Bellarine leagues, is not part of the governing body’s administration centre.

Geelong and District president Neville Whitley, who has led the league for almost three decades, told local radio station K-Rock the three leagues had been “operating all right”.

“If the clubs can’t survive at the level they’re in now, I don’t know whether grading is going to help them,” Whitley said.

“It means a club could go out and buy a (senior) premiership and the rest of the club is not up to standard.”

But Hartman said clubs would have to “tick a certain amount of boxes” if they sought to move up a division.

“It would take in on-field performance, netball, administration, junior structures, finances, all those things,” he said.

“We’d have to educate clubs to find the level they were comfortable with as well, because we wouldn’t want clubs going up (a division) and then coming straight back down.”

The restructure, if it goes ahead, would be the biggest change made by an AFL Victoria-backed regional commission since the demise of the VCFL at the end of 2012.

While AFL Barwon has the power to overhaul league structures, clubs or leagues unhappy with the outcome can appeal to AFL Victoria directly.

“But I’d be very surprised if AFL Victoria didn’t back a decision the commission made,” Hartman said.

The working party has begun canvassing metropolitan clubs and leagues playing under a divisional structure to gauge their experiences.

Hartman — who played in all four divisions of the Eastern Football League for the same club — said some teams that had dropped a grade were able to “find their feet” and reignite the interest of players, volunteers, members and sponsors in a lower division.

“Even though they’re now at a lower level, they’re winning and the club is back on its feet,” he said. “Survival of clubs is about being competitive.”

In addition to their quest to equalise leagues, football administrators in Geelong face the unique problem of a rapidly expanding population.

AFL Barwon’s junior competition, which takes in clubs from all three senior leagues and local junior leagues, now boasts a whopping 276 teams.

Torquay, in the Bellarine league, has 22 junior teams, including seven in the under-10s and six in the under-12s. Geelong league clubs St Mary’s and St Joseph’s have 16 and 15 respectively.

Ten clubs have two colts (under-18.5) teams.

“The pyramid base is getting wider at most of our clubs — we’ve got 10 clubs with two colts teams but only one senior and one reserves team,” Hartman said.

“As part of the review, we’ll consider whether we need a third senior side. We’ve probably got the numbers coming through to do it.”

Hartman said the working party was working towards implementing changes in 2016.

Outcomes would be unveiled mid next season, hence the Project 2015 title.