Kyneton Football Netball Club president Cello Matricadi said the Tigers must sign enough players tonight for it to submit a competitive squad to the Bendigo Football Netball League board on Thursday.

Kyneton has recruited “a couple” of players since last week, but needs players who have verbally committed to front-up at Kyneton Showgrounds tonight for training under new coach Brian Walsh.

“(Tonight’s) pretty much our D-Day of where we’re going to be,” Matricadi said yesterday. 

“We need to see them there at training and get them signed up.

“We’ve had a couple of signings, which is good. We’ve had a lot who say they’re coming, but until we see them - until something’s written down on paper and signed - we’ll take it from there.”

Kyneton officials have been scrambling to recruit players in the past few weeks and Matricadi believes the club could field a senior team if those who have said they will play put pen to paper.

“We’re reasonably confident we can, but it’s one of those things they’ve just got to turn up instead of hanging back and waiting to see what we’re going to get,” he said.

Kyneton will hold a meeting after training tonight to update members, supporters and the local community on the club’s position.

Kyneton has discussed its options if it doesn’t have enough player numbers to take to the BFNL board and will finalise those options at a club meeting tomorrow.

“We’ve got a few things pencilled down as the options we’re going to do…and the direction the club could possibly go in if things don’t work out or if they do work out,” Matricadi said.

Kyneton will only take a list of signed players to its meeting with the BFNL on Thursday.

“Just for us as a club and probably to a league to be fair we would like to have all the signings there to prove that we are going to be competitive in the league,” he said.

“As far as we go from there, that’s up to the league and the rest of the clubs to decide. “For us to make sure that we’re confident enough that we’re going to have a quality senior side is probably our key.”

The BFNL has its first scheduled meeting of the year on Friday, where it will discuss Kyneton’s future before speaking with the other nine clubs.