When young Tommy and Will Lane step out for Auskick each week they do so as fourth generation Lockhart footballers.

The future of Lockhart Football Netball Club was in jeopardy earlier this season with a shortage of senior footballers causing officials to consider a year's recess.

A call to arms worked and while Lockhart remain winless in first grade football, the Demons are meeting their commitments and providing a social outlet for their community.

Eighty-year-old Gerry Lane is one Lockhart supporter that turns up to every home game to support his club.

His father Tom Lane played at Lockhart back in the 1930s and he could not be prouder of the fact that his family has now produced four generations of footballers and netballers.

"Particularly for a small town and they're still here. I'm proud of them, for sure. And they've all been good footballers. Little Tommy, he kicked a 40-metre goal the other day," Jerry recalled.

"I get a lot of enjoyment out of going along. So does Jan, my wife. We get there first thing in the morning and go and watch the grandkids play footy and netball.

"It means a lot to me, to have had my kids and now their kids playing at Lockhart. The club's very important to me."

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Lane still loves getting to the footy and netball.

"Just to see and meet other people. Even with COVID, there's still been good crowds there," he said.

"It's good to go there and see all the cars around the ground. There's even a lot of grandparents that come out here from Wagga to watch the kids play."

Lane was a more than handy footballer himself, finishing second in the 1964 Baz Medal. He was also named in the Team of the Decade at Osborne, where he won a premiership during a stint at the neighbouring club.

But it's the generations that have followed that Lane is proud of most, helping make Lockhart the club what it is today.

"There's quite a few families out there and you've got to have that follow up, for sure. It's very difficult to compete otherwise," he said.

"I'm proud of the fact we've got four generations. That's a big thing."

Bob Mathews stood down as Lockhart president at the end of last season after four years in charge. He moved to Lockhart in 1989 and said the value of particularly farming families to country football clubs cannot be underestimated.

"They're the backbone of our club," Mathews said.

"Some other people will come and go a bit but not the families, especially farming families. There's a whole range of families out here that are at least third generation, there's a few who are fourth generation, which is amazing when you think about it.

"What quite often happens is the father will play footy, the kids will play footy but then they go off to university, get a job somewhere else and won't come back. You lose a lot of first and second generation so it's very unusual for that to continue through so many generations and it's usually farming families that give you that continuity.

"We're lucky at the moment, if you look at our netballers and footballers, especially our junior ones, it is all families, we've come out of a very tough period through COVID and the resilience of country people is amazing and the support of families like Gerry Lane and his family, they're wonderful people and they're the continuity of our club."

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