The mastermind behind the proposed shakeup of the sporting soul of the community, the Limestone Coast Regional Football Council will keep pushing on the matter even after Thursday’s setback.

In May the LCRFC had been amended to focus on the future sustainability of football in the region and have been flat out looking back at the 127-year history of South East football and what the future holds over last seven months.

The first step was a historic meeting held at Naracoorte between all clubs, leagues and associations at the request of the Western Border Football League, while a 23-page Discussion Paper was produced by the council to assist with brainstorming ideas for what approach the sports should take in the immediate and long term future.

Having held talks with every club competing in the Western Border, Mid South Eastern and Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara competitions, plus being armed with months’ worth of stats and opinions, the LCRFC board collated the final report on the future of community football and netball.

It decided the best step for the sports to take was recommending Penola and Kalangadoo to breakaway from their current homes and form a new eight-team competition with the Western Border sides, while separate community and town leagues were pinpointed as the best route in the long term.

Penola and Kalangadoo were given around 200 days to make a call and only needed 23 to turn it down.

However, the story is far from over with the council not willing to allow one of the biggest undertakings in Limestone Coast sporting history to simply disappear from a couple of media statements.

LCRFC chair Trevor Smart said he and the other eight members have seen both clubs and their reluctance to the recommended changes is just a small road bump in the journey to plotting a path to a more sustainable future.

“We met with the two clubs on Wednesday night as a follow up meeting to see what opinions and feedbacks they came back with,” he said.

“We just wanted to try and ascertain their views following the release of the final report and both clubs indicated they were not supportive of the recommendations.

“It (Penola and Kalangadoo’s disagreement) provides a few more challenges and I am not sure our expectation was to get full agreement.

“We understand and respect the position of both clubs, but still back our approach is good football in the long term.

“From a council point of view, our recommendations still stand and we relayed that to both clubs.

“Whilst we were not necessarily seeking their agreement or consent, we were seeking their feedback.

“As a council we will meet in the new year to consider their feedback with a view to still pursue our recommendations that a new league should still be formed in 2023.”

Despite both the Magpies and Eagles stating it is better from their perspective to retain the status quo, Smart said the council’s outlook on the bigger picture has not changed with the SANFL holding the key.

“That (change) has been our opinion all along,” he said.

“We were asked to come up with a plan for the sustainability of football in the Limestone Coast which is what we have done and we will continue to work through what we see as the detail required to allow a transition to 2023.

“We will continue to go back to the clubs and leagues providing information for consideration.

“The big question now is whether SANFL will make change or not which ends up being the bottom line.

“We will have a conversation with the community football committee and SANFL on what their approach may be.

“We understand they have the ability to make things happen on a productive basis, but it is about whether they decide to take that pathway.”

One of the biggest concerns clubs raised about the recommendations was the inequity of juniors between the Western Border clubs and the other leagues.

After taking the feedback on board, Smart said there was no need to change the recommendations with the entire structure of the new competition yet to be completed.

“The recommendation does not change because it only stated we thought the shifting of eight clubs into a new league was best,” he said.

“But with an understanding we still have to work through a lot of details including rules, constitutions, junior football and netball that goes into forming a new league.

“Juniors is a critical part of existing or future sport and that has to be worked through quite clearly.”

Another problem raised by the clubs was the suspicion the council has not poured enough attention towards the netball perspective, but Smart said the round ball has always been in consideration alongside the Sherrin.

“All netball clubs were invited to attend the initial consultation with the football clubs and everyone came together, so we have had the same discussion with both sports as we have moved along,” he said.

“We understand football and netball go together and are inseparable which is how it should be.

“We as a football council have not had discussions with Netball SA, but the SANFL have had some discussion with Netball SA.

“We are largely there for the sustainability of football, but have a clear understanding there are unnegotiable links with netball.”

The future may look uncertain for now, but with the LCRFC, plus local clubs and leagues still at odds as to what step to take next, it is clear the debate will rage on well into the new year.