Many in the broader Ballarat football community have surely thought about it – if not in depth – and  the wider implications.

The Roosters will go stand-alone – the only fully regional club in the Victorian Football League – when North Melbourne ends its partial alignment at the end of the 2015 season.

Western Victoria, let alone the AFL Goldfields region, needs the Roosters to survive.

And to be strong.

Think for a minute what could happen should the worst-case scenario unfold.

The impact is far greater than a triple-premiership club fading into VFL history as a nice memory with some cool old glory photos from Etihad Stadium.

Football throughout the region would suffer.

A pathway for promising footballers to showcase their games alongside AFL-listed talent would be cut.

A pathway for promising footballers to take their game to a higher level, right here in Ballarat, would disappear.

Just like the threat of this city losing a Victorian Netball League licence earlier this year, the experience such players take back to their grassroots clubs would end and the standard of the game in the region would slip.

Whether VFL-listed players suit up intermittently for their home clubs or return after a few seasons in the Roosters’ program, they are leaders – formally or not. The Roosters also bring talent to the region and the shift to sending players back to Ballarat clubs rather than a development team has the same positive impact, reinforced when clubs announce a Roosters player signing such as James Keeble at Sebastopol.

All players can learn from their game sense, tactics and the way they train and prepare for game day.

Similarly, the Roosters offer a strong pathway and sounding board for the region’s coaches, sports scientists, sports medicos and university students in these fields.

Now, the Roosters are confident they have the structures in place to remain competitive in the high-quality state league.

They have had more than a year’s notice to prepare and the whole notion of North Melbourne’s parting has been mooted for a while amid the growing trend for AFL clubs to rebuild their own VFL arms.

The Roosters do not rely on Kangaroos-listed players to be competitive. They continue to develop a strong, home-grown VFL base, and the return of decorated, favourite sons Myles Sewell and Orren Stephenson next season will bolster the roster for the transition.

But complete independence at state league makes the challenges for successful survival tougher.

Either way, there are distinct flow-on effects.

Western Victoria, AFL Goldfields and Ballarat football must stand behind the Roosters.

The Roosters’ move to stand alone is distinctly different to Bendigo Gold’s VFL demise.

In a nutshell, Bendigo tried to create a VFL arm from the pieces left in a bitter end to a full alignment with Essendon two years ago.

Gold signed a dedicated, high-calibre coach in former St Kilda star Aussie Jones, who moved his family to the city and threw everything into the job.

Jones was an active advocate in promoting the region’s talent.

But Gold lacked community support; it did not have its own clubrooms or council support or financial strength.

The Roosters have all that.

Their challenge is to translate this to the field when taking on AFL clubs and metropolitan powerhouses, such as Port Melbourne, that heavily recruit excess AFL talent.

The Roosters have been on their own in the VFL before.

They stepped up from the Ballarat Football League in 1996, added a reserves team in 1997 and reached a preliminary final in 2008, then back-to-back title matches in 1999 and 2000.

Sure, VFL competition was different back then, but like any sporting league, it is all about adapting to inevitable evolution.

Clubs started forming alignments with AFL clubs, some really strong, and the Roosters joined forces in a partial partnership with North Melbourne in 2006.

This helped net premierships in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The Roosters dropped their development team for 2014 to ease the increasing strain on volunteers as more AFL clubs reverted to their own VFL teams, creating an uneven seconds draw. This also allowed the Roosters a chance to strengthen ties with grassroots clubs.

Dare we even say what could happen if the Roosters’ VFL venture fails and evolution takes them back to the BFL, where spinoff but separate entity North Ballarat City exists.

Ballarat deserves a state- league football pathway. This city has invested so much time, effort and resources into taking on metropolitan heavyweights to benefit the whole region.

Ballarat needs to make this work.

melanie.whelan@fairfaxmedia.com.au