Football Wagga clubs have delivered a mixed response to their governing body’s backing of dual registration.
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It comes after The Daily Advertiser revealed Football Wagga (FWW)’s decision to support players who wished to represent both their club and Wagga City Wanderers despite having previously removed themselves from the debate.
Young Lions, Cootamundra and Junee were pleased with FWW’s statement, however, Lions president Paul Cameron said there was plenty of water to go under the bridge.
“I know I haven’t concluded all my talks about it and it’s been interesting, that’s for sure,” Cameron said.
“But yeah, I’m glad they (FWW) are supporting it – I don’t see how it affects the competition at all.”
Cootamundra president Wally Parkinson was equally supportive, citing the need to support smaller clubs with a decreased player catchment.
“I think it’s good to have it back, well it is from our point of view anyway,” Parkinson said.
“I actually think being able to play both lets guys go off and try rep footy without losing the camaraderie with their local clubs.”
Junee president Prue Duncan agreed and pointed to the importance of having options for juniors.
“We’ve got a fair few of them here and losing juniors to Wanderers would’ve really impacted us.”
Other clubs, like Henwood Park and Lake Albert, are just taking the decision in their stride.
“From a club point of view, we’re happy to support it,” Henwood Park president Ryan Smith said.
“We never made a full club statement about all this ... so we’ll just roll with what’s happening.”
“It’s a very tricky situation and our club isn’t biased one way or another … but we just want whatever’s going to be best for soccer in the region,” Lake Albert president Andrew Manton added.
“It’d be nice if we could have our Wanderers players available too.”
South Wagga president Stephen Burns said that his club’s position on dual registration would go unchanged but supported other clubs in doing so.
“The clubs put forwards their view and FWW have put forward theirs, so we’ll just cop it on the chin and get on with preparing for the season. It’s not going to faze us at all.”
Wagga United and Tumut preferred not to comment further while Leeton did not respond to The Daily Advertiser’s inquiries.
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