No plans for merger

Scorey said his club had no intention of merging and he was looking forward to leading the challenge to bring his club back as a force in the league.

‘‘We are going to do everything we can to get back respect in the league,’’ he said.

Scorey said his club had battled for numbers this season for a variety of reasons.

In one game, Merrigum was forced to play 10 players in its senior side after they had played with the reserves.

‘‘On Saturday we had about four players who had to double up but like a lot of clubs we have to deal with a lot of injuries,’’ he said.

Scorey said sponsorship of the club had increased 30 per cent this year and the club was still working to increase this area for next season.

He said the club had made no decision on coaching appointments for 2026 at this stage.

Current coach Leigh Hall, who is coming up to turning 51, has indicated he is in his last season as a player.

According to former club president and long serving administrator Brendan Nicholson, Girgarre also isn’t entertaining merger talks with Merrigum.

“Yes, it’s been discussed over a beer or two, but there’s been nothing official,” he said.

“It hasn’t got to the stage of being mentioned at a club meeting or anything like that.’’

Merrigum premiership player from the 1950s Kevin Andrews recently suggested his club’s current plight with player numbers and on-field failures could be solved with a merger with Girgarre.

But Nicholson said Girgarre was well off for numbers in its senior ranks and the club was in a stable position financially, although it has battled for years for on-field success.

‘‘There is always a challenge getting enough junior players but we have good numbers in our senior ranks,’’ Nicholson said.

Tatura stands its ground

The GVL Bulldogs — Tatura — who are also experiencing hard times, have had their name linked with the Picola and District and Football Netball League.

It has been established that an official of Tatura has had unofficial talks with Picola League officials about such a move but its club president, Quinton Langlands, has assured Bulldog fans their beleaguered club is going nowhere and is in the process of finding a replacement coach for Paul Barnard, who recently resigned, and new recruits to take into the 2026 GVL season.

Ky youngsters impress

Some Kyabram football names to watch in the future.

Kyabram had three players in the Goulburn Murray under-16 side that played Albury-Wodonga recently in the second round of the state junior AFL championships.

The GM side belted the Murray League by 116 points in round one of the competition, but succumbed to a stronger Albury-Wodonga outfit two weeks ago.

But GM coach Nic Fichera was still happy with his charges’ efforts, pointing out missed chances at the goalmouth had cost his side finishing a lot closer than the final margin of 41 points.

Kyabram’s Mitch Wilson and Tatura’s Rory Hearn and Anton Basile were praised for their games in the midfield for GM.

Antonio De Pasquale is another Kyabram player who is a member of this GM representative side, and he played well on a wing in the game.

Rolling again

The win of 11-year-old pacer Letsrockletsroll at last week’s Kilmore meeting broke a run of 25 starts away from the winner’s stall.

An aggressive drive by Ellen Tormey paid dividends, with the veteran leading throughout over the 1690m trip and producing a 1.54.7 mile rate to win effortlessly.

It was the pacer’s first win since saluting at Melton in January last year when trained by David Aiken.

Originally with Russ Thomson and then Aiken, Letsrockletsroll is now under the care of trainer John Tormey, the driver’s daughter.

It was the 12th start Torney has given the pacer and in these outings he has had nine top-five finishes leading up to last week’s win, the 21st of his 134 starts, with 29 minor placings.

He is owned and raced by Lancaster’s Merilyn Dixon, who shared the ownership with her late husband, Colin, in the pacer’s younger days.