The Maroons haven't field an under-18 football team since 2019, but are endeavouring to get a team back up this year.

"Nick Davis who has been involved with the club for a while is going to be coaching the side," Newbridge vice-president Andrew Friswell said this week.

"At this stage he's got about 12 players and, hopefully, we can get a few more and perhaps a few permitted players as well to get the side back.

"It's our intention to have the under-18 side back this year. Every club needs a junior side... that's the base of your club and where it all starts and, hopefully, it happens for us.

"We're doing our best to get the numbers we need to make it happen. There's still work to be done, but we're optimistic."

Anyone interested in playing with the Newbridge under-18s can contact Davis on 0407 324 219.

While the Maroons remain hopeful of reinstating their under-18 team this year, Bears Lagoon-Serpentine has had to defer its endeavours.

Bears Lagoon-Serpentine had sought interest from players to play with a reformed Bears under-18s this year, but will be unable to get the team back up and running in 2024.

Like Newbridge, the Bears last fielded an under-18 team in 2019.

Without Newbridge, Bears Lagoon-Serpentine, Mitiamo or Calivil United having an under-18 team in recent years, the East Loddon Rams have been introduced into the competition over the past two seasons.

The Rams have been primarily made up of players who go to the East Loddon P-12 College, which serves the towns of Dingee, Mitiamo, Raywood, Serpentine and surrounding areas, with the team making last year's grand final.

"Unfortunately, we've hit a bit of a snag with trying to get our under-18 team back up," Bears footy operations manager Greg Gadsden said.

"We've got half-a-dozen local kids who have been playing with the Rams and have re-committed to the Rams.

"If those half-a-dozen kids were to come back to us we were up to about 13 local players, but only having the six or seven once those kids committed back to the Rams was just going to make it too hard.

"Unfortunately, we're going to have to pass up on the thirds this year.

"We'd love to be able to get the team back up and running again in the future. I think it would be terriffic to have a pathway for our kids to go from under-18s through to seniors, but the issue we have is we just don't have enough local kids of a similar age who could step up and play.

"We're always going to need to get kids out of Bendigo to top them up, but we probably need 10 to 12 local kids coming through within a two-year age bracket of each other.

"When you've only got six in that age bracket locally then it makes it pretty hard to go and get 14 or so out of Bendigo to get a side."