North Warrnambool Eels president Jamie Harry says while its proposed merger with the Northern Raiders has fallen over the club is moving forward into a positive future.
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The Bushfield-based club, who've won three Warrnambool Moyne and District division one titles in the past decade, admitted it was disappointing not to have the merger ticked off after the Raiders cancelled their planned vote on Friday July 12, 2024.
But Harry reiterated the club had quickly moved on and were sternly focused on building up its juniors, strengthening its women's program and maintaining its strong senior men's teams.
"It didn't work out unfortunately. All our efforts and energy went into that, we just couldn't work through a few things," Harry said.
"When I came into the role 12 months ago, we put together a strategic plan and got our committee together and focused on the key foundation of our plan, being our juniors, our women and being community focused.
"We've taken a big step forward as a club, for us it's now beginning to build what we started, however we understand it's not a short term process.
"We're moving forward and thrive on being a really progressive club."
Harry said the club was planning to bring in another under 15 juniors team this season and were forging ahead on the assumption it was going to be playing in the new premier division as part of the association's new promotion-relegation model.
"We'll aim to build our club in the premier league but we're aware we may need to present to the league because we were towards the bottom of the ladder (last season)," he said.
"On the field last year we didn't have our best year but we've historically been one of the strongest clubs.
"Aside from Russells Creek, we've been the strongest (division one) team for a decade but the way the competition is, someone has to finish top and someone has to be bottom, that's the cycle of it.
"There's definitely a lot of innuendo and assumptions out there but we are really building our junior program and working closely with the community and the footy club.
"We have access to a great turf wicket and are continuing to talk with the council and have a significant number of returning players back at the club which is exciting.
"There's a lot of really positive things going on."
Harry said amongst those returning players were Jackson Grundy and Liam Burgess, while the club was also hoping to announce an international import soon and lock in its coaching structure with long-time mentor John Houston expected to remain as senior coach.
Nick Creely
Sports reporter with The Standard
Sports reporter with The Standard
