The Magpies are considering their future, including a possible defection to the nearby Maryborough-Castlemaine District ranks, largely because of their senior football team’s inability to compete in the current 18-team format.

A meeting of about 100 members was hosted at Clunes on Sunday, where discussions took place about the club’s future.

Comelli said on Monday he was disappointed to hear the club was considering leaving the competition.

“We don’t want to see Clunes leave the competition, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. 

“They’ve been a very successful club in recent times, albeit they may not be going as well as they’d like at the moment, but all clubs ebb and flow.

“It was a surprise (to hear the news) because I had no idea it was coming and hadn’t heard any rumours or any rumblings.”

Comelli said the league board of management would like to be involved in the club’s next meeting, which is expected to be on May 11. 

Here, it is anticipated there will be an update from the Magpies’ newly formed sub-committee, which has been set up to help explore the club’s options.

“We’d like to know more, but I don’t know they (Clunes) know any more,” Comelli said.

“There are no decisions made, they may well choose to stay where they are and we hope they do.”

Clunes released a statement on its website, which stated the purpose of Sunday’s meeting was to “provide all of our members the opportunity to voice their opinions to the committee on matters they feel important to them.”

“At Sunday’s meeting, our members made it very clear that they believe there is a large disparity between teams within our current league,” the statement read.

“Concerns were raised that a lack of success would threaten our survival and see us become uncompetitive in the long-term.”

Maryborough-Castlemaine District president Steve Broad said the league was open to discussions with Clunes but only in partnership with the Central Highlands.

Broad said the Magpies had made no approach to the MCDFNL.

“Obviously talks are still at club-level and Clunes is weighing up its options. If they want to approach us with a proposal they can but until we possibly know the options, we won’t be discussing this (as a league) at all,” he said.

“We like to think we have a really good relationship with the Central Highlands, we had a really good junior interleague carnival with them this year.

“Any decision-making we might do will be in conjunction with the Central Highlands.”

Broad said the league was working to develop clubs, in particular junior football and netball ranks.

tim.oconnor@fairfaxmedia.com.au

melanie.whelan@fairfaxmedia.com.au