The abandonment of the Ballarat Football Netball League junior season has led to the Central Highlands putting out a call for more team entries.
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League manager Diane Ryan sent an email to clubs on Wednesday evening advising them that entries would now be taken up until close of business this Friday.
Potential new fixtures for under-18, under-15 and under-12 divisions will then be created over the weekend and released ahead of the start of play on July 11.
Ryan said the football landscape had changed in the region given the BFNL would not proceed with a 2020 competition. The BFNL had planned to go ahead with juniors, but was forced to scrap that on Tuesday due to a lack of commitment from member clubs.
"Our league now finds itself in a position where the BFL junior players are now looking outside their league to participate in sport this season," Ryan said in the email.
"The CHFL board have made the decision to reopen to CHFL clubs the opportunity to submit teams who have had requests from these player to allow them to play football this season.
"The board realise this is a late change to the arrangement for the season start however the focus is to give junior players the opportunity to participate in sport."
Ryan said it was expected at least two teams would be added to the competition before entries close on Friday at 5pm.
She said allowing clubs from outside the league to submit teams had been discussed, but admitted that wasn't going to happen.
Prior to Wednesday's announcement, the CHFL was set to host a 10-team under-18 competition, with slightly less numbers for the under-15s and under-12s.
Given no reserves and senior football will be played in 2020, start times for the junior grades have been pushed back to later in the day. The junior fixture sent out early this week had under-12s kicking off the day at 10.30am, under-15s scheduled for 12noon and the under-18s at 2.15pm. It's expected these start times won't change with the addition of new teams to the competition.
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BFNL chairman Adrian Bettio told The Courier he was disappointed with the lack of commitment from clubs for a junior season.
He said the league made every effort and put a range of options on the table in a bid to get competition up and running this year.
Bettio said it was a similar case with the senior grades, with clubs also forcing the decision to abandon those as well.
