Yet another Kyabram District League club will be missing from the 2023 senior football fixture after it was confirmed on Tuesday that Rushworth would not be fielding a side in the competition.
This comes after Ardmona confirmed in December it would not return to the league in 2023 after it spent the 2022 season in recess.
But unlike the Bushcats, Rushworth will not be shutting down the entirety of its operations and will still field football teams in the reserves, under-18s and under-14s, while boasting a full complement of netball sides.
The Tigers endured a tough 2022 season on the football field, winning one game in the seniors and one in the reserves.
The club also parted ways with senior coach Damian Wust halfway through the campaign and has since been unable to find a replacement.
Rushworth president Mark Bartlett said it was the club’s inability to find a senior coach that ultimately led to it being unable to enter the senior competition this season.
“A lot of players wouldn’t sign on because we didn’t have a coach,” Bartlett said.
“We have done a power of work and interviewed a lot of candidates, but a lot of them were up to 40 to 50 grand to coach which is ridiculous, as a club we can’t pay that type of money.
“So we have decided to go back a step this year in the hope of building the club from the ground up, we have a great community of people around the club, a great netball program, so at the moment it is just about bringing the football back up to that level.”
The league gave Rushworth permission to step back from the senior competition at its recent annual general meeting, where all clubs voted on the matter.
League operations manager Julian Perta explained the situation from the league’s point of view.
“Rushworth will not have a senior team this year,” Perta said.
“At the AGM, a club vote was announced and the result of the vote came after the AGM to allow Rushworth to field a reserves, under-18s and under-14s this season with the intention of putting the work in to field a senior side next season.
“In terms of the impact on the fixture, each club playing Rushworth will receive a bye. However, we are working out the implications on salary cap and double-up matches against Rushworth at our committee meeting tonight (Tuesday).”
While this is an obvious step backwards, the club is working tirelessly to ensure its absence from the senior football competition is as short as possible.
Bartlett outlined how preparations for the upcoming season were tracking and some of the work they were doing to try to attract new players.
“We’ve probably got 16 reserves players on the track at the moment, which has been really good,” he said.
“And then in the 18s we’ve got about 11 and the same in the 14s, so we’re pushing really hard to get those sides raring to go for the start of the season.
“We certainly haven’t stopped, we’re probably working twice as hard now, we’ve been into the schools and chatted to the headmasters about trying to get some new kids out to the club.
“Our major focus is building from the ground up and that starts with our juniors.”