Smythesdale Football Netball Club president John Cranny is acting cautiously following news the Mininera & District Football Netball league will undergo a restructure in 2020.
Speaking to The Courier, Cranny said the club will be keeping its options open despite the potential chance of a move to the league.
"I think we'll have to have a look and see exactly what happens first, it's all just talk to the moment," he said.
"We're definitely interested to see what's going on... it's more about finding out what changes are actually going to happen and if they were to our advantage."
The Mininera league has recently been thrust into the spotlight following reports senior football ladder-leader Penshurst could look to exit the league and the Ararat Eagles' 509-point loss to Great Western at the weekend.
Smythesdale's bid to join the Mininera league at end of 2018 was rejected, however Cranny says the two entities have remained in conversation about submitting another bid in the future.
"We've taken an interest in (the Mininera league) and they've encouraged us to apply again."
With the vast majority of Smythesdale's former senior players now playing for other clubs, Cranny relented getting them back to play for the Bulldogs would be a monumental task.
"Ultimately our club disbanded in a sense... there's no guarantee we'd be able to get those people back again. A lot of the people I've spoken to have moved on, a lot of things would have to fall in the right places."
After falling short of finding a league to compete in across 2019, Cranny said his club would need to have a strong indication about successfully entering a league before taking action as to save it's committee more heartbreak.
"There are people who would love to get things back up and running at the club but at the same time what we went through last year was very difficult.
"There's no way these people want to do all this work only to have it pulled from them again... we'd really need those parties like Mininera and AFL Goldfields to strongly encourage and back us going forward."
Cranny said Smythesdale FNC remains in talks with Golden Plains Shire about a return to competition in some capacity and voiced his opinion a junior football program would help the club immensely.
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