AFL Riverina hasn't ruled out extending that ban for the rest of the season after the NSW government closed the Victorian border on Monday due to a surge in coronavirus cases.

The Hoppers were one of the more vocal clubs in trying to limit the number of out-of-towners allowed to be signed by clubs after the cancellation of several Victorian leagues prompted an AFL Riverina recruiting frenzy.

"I said to another club president it's become like an arm's race. One team got a big gun, then the next club has to get a big gun (to compete) and it's gone on and on. I don't think it's good for our competition, to be honest," Buchanan said.

"I've put it to the league on a couple of occasions that it should have been limited to five different players you didn't have at the start of the season, whether they be juniors or imports."

Buchanan said they were concerned about disillusioning local players who would be denied a chance to play first grade football.

"The health of our community, players and supporters is our highest priority, and the viability of our club in 2021 and beyond is what we're more focused on.

"If you were to win the premiership this year, that's nice, but if you're not going to play the locals actually living in your town we don't think that's good for our club going forward.

"The points system was designed to stop clubs buying a premiership, but it was never designed for Covid in mind. Our sponsors and supporters have made it very clear they want to see as many locals play as possible, and see them still here next year."

Coolamon had put through clearances for Myrtleford pair Hugh Wales and Malachi Owers, as well as the Heathcote League's Zeik Johnston.

But Buchanan said it was in response to rival clubs' luring of high end talent, and a desire to remain competitive.

"What we did was probably react to what other clubs were doing because we thought if we didn't, we wouldn't remain a premiership threat," he said.

"As a club we think it's probably gone way too far, the number of players that were brought into the competition.

"We retained most of our players from last year. The salary cap is a quarter of what it was at the start of the season, so we've asked our contracted players to take a pay cut, which they all agreed to happily.

"We haven't then gone and spent extra money on these guys from Victoria, we weren't going to spend any more money because we didn't think it was fair to the guys who took a pay cut.

"We were quite targeted in what we were looking for. We weren't looking to push out a guy who had done pre-season and been around the club all their life."

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