Lockhart went on the front foot this week, issuing a call to arms on player numbers in a desperate bid to avoid going into a year's recess.

The Demons have given themselves a month to get the necessary senior football numbers required to fulfil their commitments for the upcoming season, with only 13 players across first and reserve grade on board so far.

Bouffler said Lockhart's situation will be one of the top agenda items at Wednesday night's Hume League board meeting.

The new Hume League president also confirmed the board will do whatever is required to support a long-term club.

"There will be nothing surer. We've actually got a board meeting (Wednesday night) so it's good timing," Bouffler said.

"We'll meet (Wednesday night) and it's obviously going to be one of our main discussion points. We'll have some ideas and run through scenarios.

"We're here to support them. It's a different thing if you have a club coming in to your league they come in with a full contingent of teams but when you've got an incumbent side, you've got to take a bit of time to look after them.

"It's a big issue, really, because it's a huge area really to lose football and netball out of. If you go into recess for a year it's pretty hard to recover sometimes so that would be their worst-case scenario.

"The board's going to help them as much as we can hopefully."

Bouffler believes the option of going into recess for the season should be avoided at all costs.

"I'll use the Boree Creek example, they went into recess and that was the end of them, there was no amalgamation, no nothing," he said.

"You lose your identity if you go into recess, if you merge or something like that, you retain your identity but when you recess, goodnight Irene.

"We'll give them as much support as we can. We'll look at options, sometimes it's a little bit cyclic, player numbers and that sort of thing, in 10 years time it could be another side so as a Hume League family we need to embrace them and look after them. That would be my idea of it.

"The good thing about it in this case is that the juniors are strong, the netball's very strong, they've just got this problem for 12 months, what they're saying is they're going to have a 12-month problem, we just need to support them through that period in what goes on.

"We won't be cutting them loose, I promise you of that."

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Bouffler said supporting clubs like Lockhart during the tough times is much bigger than just football and netball.

"At the end of the day, football and netball are great and it's great playing that, but in communities there's people come and watch it," he said.

"All of the mental health issues since COVID, you've got to have a network of support around and there's nothing better than having a day at the footy, catch up with a few mates, they don't play, they don't do anything but they go out and socialise.

"It's a great social network so it would very problematic for a town to lose their identity like that."

Lockhart this season are sharing the role of president between the executive. One thing Bouffler would like to see is someone take on the position outright.

"The only thing I would say is that they really do need someone out there, I really think they need a president to galvanise the whole show," he said.

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