The Central Highlands Football League is happy to stick with its current junior age groupings for the 2021 season.
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League president Doug Hobson said there had been some discussion around moving the top junior age division from under-18 to under-19, but believed that presented other issues.
The NAB League is one competition that has moved from under-18 to under-19 due to the impact of COVID-19 on season 2020.
AFL Victoria has guidelines about the minimum ages of players in particular divisions and this could impact player numbers and retention if the CHFL decided to alter all junior grades.
"I know the understanding of what people are saying that apart from the four matches we got this year, a lot of those kids haven't had the chance to enjoy their last year of under-18 football," Hobson said.
"But on the other side they probably should be looking ahead to their first year of senior football."
The flow-on of under-18 players into the reserves and senior competitions is important for Hobson.
"I can understand how they will have missed out on some footy through that and it's an unfortunate fact of where we are, but the other side is that we really need a lot of those kids that want to still keep playing football to fill our reserves sides and senior sides."
The CHFL abandoned all senior and reserves competition this year due to COVID-19, but had four rounds of under-12, under-15 and under-18 matches before those grades were also called off for 2020.