Victoria's westernmost clubs want to join forces. Is 2022 a year of country footy mergers?

This year will be the last for two of Victoria's westernmost amateur sports teams in what could be a sign of things to come statewide.

Nhill's sporting club, the Tigers, and Kaniva-Leeor's football and netball teams, the Cougars, have confirmed they want to become one in 2023 as the best way to secure their futures.

It comes as the future of leagues on the South Australian side of the border, in which Kaniva played before the pandemic and border closures hit, is also in doubt.

The clubs say a typical mix of an ageing population, younger residents moving away to study, and COVID are to blame for their recruiting challenges.

Kaniva Leeor United's president Ben Dunstall says fewer and fewer kids have gotten on board in recent years.

«Junior numbers are lacking,» he says.

«Kaniva and Nhill barely have an under 17s team between them.

»Netball has pretty firm numbers, but last year we didn't have all four sides — we only had three.

«It's not uncommon for the reserves [football] side to play 15 a side due to lack of numbers.»

The two clubs met last week to start discussions on an amalgamation — they are adamant it is not a merger — but Nhill steering committee chair Kat Colbert says the discussion dates back to mid-2020.

«Nhill has relied on recruits out of Melbourne, Adelaide, Geelong, and Ballarat to field our senior football team, and Kaniva has been the same,» Ms Colbert says.

«COVID really impacted our ability to source players from outside the region, particularly most of ours come from Adelaide.»

Though the border is now open with no caveats, Ms Colbert says the risk of sudden border changes means they cannot return to the old ways.

«We felt relying on a decent amount of recruits to field our team wasn't viable going forward,» she