Wooden-spooners in 2011, the club pulled the pin on the 2012 season early last year, citing a lack of players and dwindling off-field support.

"We could have battled on and put a team on the ground again last year, scraped together 23 or 24 players," Roos president Ron Hards said.

"But we wouldn't have been competitive.

"We would have been a walkover every week, the same as what we had been for a few years.

"I got sick of just making up the numbers."

Hards, a grain grower at Yarrara, about 90km west of Mildura, is one of the Roos' longest-suffering supporters.

Involved with the club for "40-odd years", he's never seen them win a flag - Meringur last tasted premiership glory in 1964.

Since then, he's lived through five losing grand finals - one as recently as 2005 - and "the most disappointing season we've ever had", in 2002, when Meringur waged an unblemished home-and-away campaign only to be dispatched in straight sets come finals.

Then, there was the 1987 merger with fellow Millewa club South Merbein, which was rewound in 1995 when all but one of the South Merbein originals had moved on.

Determined to see his beloved Roos survive, Hards - in his second stint as president and after decades on the committee - was one of the drivers of the decision to send Meringur into recess last year.

"I said to some of the guys that I thought we ought to have a year off, see if we can shock some people into thinking about what they'll lose if the footy club goes under.

"I think a few of them realised they'd have nowhere to go on a Saturday."

Far from resting on their laurels last year, Hards and his committee - including Roos secretary and son-in-law Adam Astill - continued fundraising efforts, spoke to potential players and, by last November, secured their coach on a two-year deal.

"We wanted to sign Pete for two years to make it known to everyone that we weren't going to be just a flash in the pan," Astill said.

"We've already come such a long way."

Highly regarded in Sunraysia football circles, coach Lindsay arrived at Meringur after a footballing lifetime at Merbein, another club that has endured hard times.

After joining the Magpies as a 16-year-old in 1979, he started his coaching career a decade later with the club's under-17s.

Since then, he's led the under-11s, under-16s, under-18s and reserves, and served a three-year stint as Sunraysia's under-18 interleague coach.

"I've coached for 20 years but there's always been someone with a higher position than me," Lindsay said.

"I wanted the chance to coach a side by myself and I also wanted to help Meringur get going again."

In his 33-year stint at Merbein, Lindsay recalls "probably four times that the club was on the ropes and looked like it wasn't going to be here".

He reckons it makes him well qualified to help lead Meringur out of the darkness, and Hards agrees.

"Peter's attitude and background and his loyalty to Merbein was outstanding," he said.

"If we can just siphon a little bit of that off to us, we'll do all right."

With just a handful of players left from the Roos' 2011 list, Lindsay spent his summer recruiting virtually a whole team. His pulling power has seen almost 40 players front up to at least one training session, with an average of 22 most nights.

"Recruiting's been a bigger job than what I thought, but I've been very lucky in that 90 per cent of the people I've asked have said yes," he said.

"You only need 22 to turn up on a Saturday, but obviously you need more for injuries and people being away, so I'm aiming for a squad of 30.

"But you can't fit 30 into 22 and there's no reserves.

"The trick is keeping those eight blokes who might not get a game for the first five or six weeks interested, because their turn will come."

The Roos have recruited Dale Carter, Nathan Lawson, Mark Lawson and Marlon Kelly from Wentworth's reigning reserves premiership team in the Sunraysia league, with Lindsay hopeful their finals experience will "flow through".

Several former Merbein reserves players have also joined the club, along with Tyson Spinks from Tooleybuc-Manangatang in the Central Murray league, brothers Kirwin and Courtney Moore from fellow Millewa club Werrimull and a smattering from other clubs in the Sunraysia district.

Such was the turnover of players, the club was forced introduce its recruits to their Lake Cullulleraine home ground, 55km west of Mildura, at a barbecue in February.

"We train in Merbein, so we took them out to the Lake one Friday night because a lot of the boys didn't know what the ground looked like or which change rooms to go to," Lindsay recalled.

While the Roos haven't posted a win since May 2011, its leaders remain confident of a successful comeback season.

Hards said most Millewa league clubs experienced huge player turnovers every year, so Meringur's situation was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Some clubs change as much as 10-15 players a year, so half the list could be new," he said.

"I've told the boys, 'Don't think just because we've reformed this year and a lot of you blokes are new that we can't win a flag'.

"It's a funny game."

Lindsay has fixed his eyes firmly on a finals berth in his first year at the helm.

"I think we'll be very, very good," he said.

"All the boys we've targeted are very skilful and very quick.

"When you're in a side that's playing for survival, sometimes the result doesn't matter as long as you put a team on the field.

"But we're past that.

"We've got a side here that's going to be bloody competitive."

The Roos' first test will be on April 20 when they take on perennial powerhouse Bambill, with the Saints smarting from a 10-goal loss to eventual runner-up Gol Gol in last year's preliminary final.

Hards, for one, can't wait.

"I'm really excited, really looking forward to it," he said.

"We're just a little old country footy club aspiring to great things - and a bloody premiership would be nice."