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WYCHEPROOF-Narraport president Josh White says the Demons' fate beyond this year won't be determined by whether they merge with another club or not.
The lack of junior players - Wycheproof-Narraport is now into its fifth year without an under-16.5 side - continues to hamper the Demons, who with dwindling numbers are looking at potential merger options going forward.
One option the Demons had considered was merging with Golden Rivers club Nullawil, but that prospect has been abandoned.
However, White says regardless of how the discussions on the club's future play out in the coming months, the Demons will remain in the North Central league next year should they continue to go it alone.
"We'd been in talks with Nullawil for 12 months. They put an offer on the table to us that was a 50-50 split, which was perfect, but they wanted to stay in the Golden Rivers league," White said on Friday.
"However, our league is unique in that we've got hockey as well as football and netball.
"We had a vote on it last week and it got knocked on the head because we have the hockey... we have a lot of kids who play hockey and footy or netball, so we'd be basically cutting the club in half.
"So at this stage that's where we're at. We're a very proud club and a very proud community, so whatever happens, the club won't die.
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"We're not going anywhere; you've only got to come to our clubrooms and see that there's no more room on the ceiling for flags; we've got a great culture.
"It will be hard if we stay as is, but the club will survive."
White says the continued lack of numbers for an under-16.5 side is taking an increased toll, particularly with the added focus now on club's developing their juniors under AFL Victoria's Player Points System.
"This is the fifth year without an under-16.5 team and there's a lot of other clubs that may well be in the same boat as us within a few years, so we're just trying to get on the front foot and dictate our future rather than being told what our future may be," White said.
"Unfortunately, we just don't have the numbers for our under-16.5 team.
"There's 96 kids at the school, but only eight or nine in the under-16 age bracket and it's similar in the under-13s, so we've barely got enough to push them together."
While the club now finds itself in the position of seeking out potential merger partners, the Demons have been a force in the North Central league since the merger of Wycheproof and Narraport in 1964.
The Demons have won 19 senior premierships since the merger - 1964, 1965, 1967, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2010, 2017 and 2018.
Their back-to-back flags of the past two years, coached by Julian Bull, were made up of primarily locally-grown one-point players.
"We're a club that has been so lucky to have so many local guys who may not live in Wyche any more, but are still happy to go back and play each week," White said.
"Look at Corey Jones our coach... he's travelling back and coaching us for nothing because that's the sort of guy he is.
"We're not desperate, we're just trying to keep ourselves in front of the pack with looking at our future."
The Demons travel to take on Wedderburn in round 12 on Saturday.
SATURDAY'S ROUND 12 MATCHES:
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