Wagga and District Juniors to drop one or two competitons as 'two-year age brackets' return

While major structural changes to senior football and netball have been pushed back to 2023 as a result of the pandemic, minor junior football changes remain on the agenda for this year.

The independent review into AFL Riverina competitions by David Burgess originally recommended that junior age groups return to under 12, 14 and 16, with under 18 to be the entry point to seniors.

With no change to the Farrer and Riverina League's under 17.5s this year, AFL Riverina said Wagga and District Juniors will have under 15s, under 13s, under 11s and under 10s competitions, as well as Auskick Pros (for 8-9 year olds) and Auskick Rookies for playes seven and under.

"The idea of going 'double age' creation is to ensure that all clubs can enter teams more evenly," AFL Riverina operations manager Tom Walker said.

"A lot of our smaller clubs are not able to submit all age groups. The idea is to ensure the smaller clubs are viable and sustainable with their numbers moving forward."

To avoid penalising those with high junior numbers, or potentially turning prospective players away from the sport, clubs are allowed to field two teams in an age group.

"Obviously the caveat is the bigger clubs will have to enter two teams in those age groups, if they have the numbers," Walker confirmed.

AFL Riverina noted it's not quite a complete move back to two-year age brackets.

"The asterisk is under 12s, we may potentially have an under 12s this year, but it will depend on team numbers in the under 13s age bracket," Walker said.

"If there's enough teams of under 12s to make it a viable, stand-alone competition, then it will be its own comp."

Clubs have been asked to nominate their teams and age groups for this year by early March, which AFL Riverina says will give it a good month to make final decisions and determine draws before the season kicks off.

It will be the second year without an under 14s, although last year's decision to drop that competition was a late call due to a lack of numbers in an age group that's been problematic for some years.

Last season, Eastlakes-Mangoplah-Cookardinia United and Turvey Park both fielded two teams in the under 15s.

Those clubs stuck with their separate under 14s and under 15s teams.

Walker said it's not up to AFL Riverina to direct clubs on how to manage their teams. Each club is entitled to make their own call about keeping their age groups together and fielding one full bottom-age team, or combining their players and spreading the 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds aross two potentially more even teams.

"Clubs who will enter multiple teams, it's up to their discretion as to how they split their teams," Walker said.

"We're not going to tell them how to manage the multiple teams."

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