That’s not really their own doing, but by the lack of people in country towns. The population is dwindling and clubs have less families, less volunteers and less players. 

Clubs have been folding and merging for decades. The Wimmera Mail-Times recently wrote on the small Rosebery Football Club, with one man trying to form a reunion. The club folded in 1969. 

In recent times we have seen merger clubs thrive – look at Harrow-Balmoral’s recent success and high player numbers as one example. 

However, still clubs struggle on. 

Edenhope-Apsley has been coming to terms with its reality for a few years. It has been discussing another possible merger with Border Districts – a merger club itself between the towns of Goroke and Frances – in recent years. 

On Tuesday night, Edenhope-Apsley members met to decide the best way to move forward. The club will go to a vote at the end of the season to decide if it would merge, or go it alone. Although the decision might seem a negative one, it’s not all doom and gloom – not even close. 

The club’s president Carolyn Middleton says, there were plenty of people determined to keep the club going as it is and not to merge again. 

For how long the club, and other country clubs, can do this is anyone’s guess. We just don’t have the people we once did. People like Ms Middleton and the Edenhope-Apsley community who are determined to fight for sport in our region should be celebrated. 

Their job is not to be underestimated – a lot of them hold full-time jobs and go above and beyond to run a football and netball club. They aren’t doing it for themselves but for the young children playing under-14s football or 13 and under netball. They want their children to have the same opportunities they had themselves. 

It’s getting harder and harder to run a sporting club in the Wimmera, but through determination, grit and hard work hopefully clubs can continue to survive in their own right. If not, there will still be football and netball in the region in some form.

One quote from Ms Middleton perhaps sums up a lot of country sporting volunteers perfectly – “We won’t be folding, we will keep fighting.” 

Let us all celebrate that attitude. 

Sean Wales, sports journalist