MERINGUR Football Club president Ron Hards says the writing was on the wall for the embattled club before the decision to go into recess on Monday night.
The Millewa Football League club was unable to get the support needed for this season and members voted to take the year off to get the club up and running again for 2013.
After a disappointing turnout to their annual general meeting at Chaffey Park, Merbein on Monday night, the club’s loyal supporters made the tough call for the season, after an exodus of players as well as off-field personnel.
Mr Hards said while the decision was disappointing to make, it was a necessary one.
“It is a shame for us and the league, but the first thing for us is to make sure we could stay viable,” he said.
“If we kept going the way we were going then we would have had to fold and that is not the way we wanted to go.
"We will continue our affiliation with the league. We will still maintain the club and the social side of the club; hopefully we come back stronger next year."
Mr Hards said the meeting on Monday night had about 20 fewer people than they were hoping for.
“I was hoping for about 30 or 40 or so, but we only got about another 10 – we were hoping to get a good show,” he said.
“The members that were present took a vote and the vast majority voted that we go into recess and regroup and to do some recruiting and be ready to go in 2013. We will start looking around, we will have an advantage on most other clubs, we will start looking at players for 2013 and hopefully we can attract enough players and a coach.”
Mr Hards said the netball team was still keen to play, and was unsure where current footballers would play this year.
“The netball girls still want to play; I’m not sure how that will work but the league will figure that out,” he said.
“I think some of the players will go off to different clubs in groups, I’m not sure how we’ll handle it.
“We will be looking at putting an arrangement together where the clubs they go to can release them back to us when we come back into the league.
“I hope the committee can stay together.”
Mr Hards said the ultimate goal was for the club to come back stronger and be more competitive.
Millewa Football League president Peter Hartmann said it was disappointing that Meringur was not able to play in 2012.
“There were rumours flying around for a while, and we hoped to get to the point where they had a committee and got a team on the park,” he said.
“Attending the meeting on Monday, there was a real optimism about 2013, it was all very positive.
“I have volunteered to attend the meetings during the year, and they will attend league meetings as they are still a member of the league. In all essence they are still part of it, just not playing.”
Mr Hartmann said the league was in the process of reconstructing the draw, likely to be a 16-round season beginning on April 14.
“We don’t anticipate having a bye week, maybe a split round instead. We are committed to starting and finishing when we said,” Mr Hartmann said.
The MFL will have a meeting on Monday night to confirm the draw.
This article appeared in Wednesday's Sunraysia Daily 1-2-2012.
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