The blue and white of Ardmona will not be found gracing the fields and courts of Kyabram District League in 2022, after the club announced its decision to go into recess on Friday night.
Taking to social media to break the news, the club cited an inability to attract enough players to field competitive sides as the major factor behind the decision.
“It is with great regret and much consideration that the Ardmona Football Netball Club has made the difficult decision to go into recess for the 2022 season,” the club said in its statement.
“The club has struggled to secure enough players to field a side that would be competitive this year.”
Enduring a tough period on and off the field, the Bush Cats went an astounding six years — 2121 days to be exact — without winning a game, before Hawthorn legend Shane Crawford came on board as senior coach and inspired a drought-breaking victory against Longwood last year.
This is the second time the Bush Cats won’t feature in the league’s senior competition in the past five years, as they only fielded a reserves and under-18 team in 2017.
A major curveball for the competition one month out from the commencement of the season, league president Fraser Kerrins said it was disappointing to see one of its clubs be unable to field a side in 2022.
“It is disappointing that just one month out from the season we will not be able to have Ardmona participate,” Kerrins said.
“We have been working with the Ardmona Football Club over the past couple of years and have been in constant communication with their football and netball directors and their executive committee for the last two months.
“Those discussions then intensified earlier in the week and it has been a constant line of open communication that led to them making the decision they made on Friday night.”
He said the Ardmona situation signified the struggle community football had faced in recent years as it continues to try and bounce back from the effects of COVID-19.
“It is not a great thing (to see one of our clubs go into recess), but unfortunately it shows a bit of where we are as a football community across the state in the fact that more and more clubs are struggling to get volunteers, players, members, supporters, and all sorts of things,” he said.
“I reckon we won’t be the only league this happens to this year; I think all over teams will struggle to field reserves and under-18s teams which is very disappointing.”
For Kerrins and the league committee, focus quickly shifts to navigating how the fixture will look now Ardmona is out, with some decisions to be made in the coming days.
“The fixture will be discussed at our next delegates meeting which is on Wednesday night at which point a decision will be made on where we head with the fixture for 2022 and will be re-released shortly thereafter,” he said.
“Since we found out Ardmona’s decision, we have been working through a number of different scenarios which will best help our clubs to get under way on April 2.”
As for the future of Ardmona Football Netball Club, the statement stressed this would only be a temporary situation, as the Bush Cats hope to come back ‘’bigger and better’’ in 2023.
“The committee is going into this recess with a firm plan to return in 2023 with a strong junior development plan and with coaching and admin staff that will attract a competitive and enthusiastic group of players,” the statement read.
“We realise this will be very hard news to take for our loyal Ardy Army but rest assured that 2023 will see the Bush Cats back bigger and better than ever!”