A LACK of numbers have forced Wagga and District Junior Football Netball League (WDJFNL) to scrap one of their age groups.
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The under 10s football competition will not go ahead this season after only five of the 10 clubs entered a team.
AFL Riverina is confident the decision won't have a big impact on junior footballers with those affected to now to merge into under 11s teams.
It leaves WDJFNL with just three age divisions - under 11s, 13s and 15s - after Auskick.
AFL Riverina chairman Michael Irons said it was a numbers decision.
"With only five teams entered, the logistics of operating the competition and providing a consistent amount of games without having regular byes became a challenging scenario," Irons said.
"Clubs weren't keen on regular byes and didn't want to have kids split up on game days to play make-up games elsewhere.
"Clubs are happy to combine the under 10s with their under 11s team and ensure that all clubs have strong numbers in that grade."
Clubs will be able to field a second under 11 team if necessary although AFL Riverina understands that is unlikely based on the numbers.
Irons does not expect the removal of under 10s to have a detrimental effect on the junior competitions.
"In the last two years we have had seven teams participating in the under 10s competition so we haven't had a full complement of clubs," Irons said.
"But the under 10s probably isn't a true reflection of our overall program as we've had nine-year-olds kids playing up from Auskick and under 10s kids playing up in under 11s across a number of clubs, so the overall impact is not going to have a detrimental effect on our junior competition."
While the removal of the under 10 competition tends to sound alarm bells for the game in the Riverina in the big picture.
Irons said AFL Riverina will review participation numbers to identify any potential alarming trends.
"From high level, it's a disappointing outcome for the kids' that are transitioning out of Auskick into competition football but they still have an opportunity to play in the Under 11s and that aligns with what occurs in the south west juniors," Irons said.
"We will review our participation numbers to identify if there are any trends that are obvious and also what the forecast for 2025 will be and discuss with clubs during the year."
