Nhill plays in the Wimmera Football Netball League, while Kaniva-Leeor United plays in the Horsham District Football Netball League.

On Friday, the clubs put out a statement on Facebook confirming that they had met to "discuss the future of [their] clubs" the previous night.

The statement highlighted the changing environments that local sporting clubs face as a reason for the talks.

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"It is clear that the landscape for grassroots sporting clubs has changed over time and the declining and ageing population is having a negative impact on player and volunteer numbers of our small clubs," part of the statement read.

Both Kaniva-Leeor (netball and football) and Nhill also had player numbers negatively impacted by border restrictions between South Australia and Victoria in 2021.

Speaking to the Wimmera Mail-Times on Tuesday, KLUFC president Ben Dunstall was clear that no decisions had been made and the clubs were "just in discussions at the moment".

"The bottom line is, we've had a discussion with Nhill and we'll have further discussions with Nhill," Dunstall said.

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"There's a lot of water to go under the bridge, and if we come to an agreement with Nhill, we have to pass it by our committee and pass it by all our members before we do anything.

"It's only discussions, we're being open and honest with our members and informing them of what we're doing. We would like to continue good discussions with Nhill."

Dunstall pointed to a "lack of numbers in both communities" as the driving factor behind the meeting.

"We all want football and netball to continue in our area and we're just trying to be proactive so one day we don't miss out on having our sport in our communities," he said.

"Kaniva kids have gone to Nhill this year for the cricket so why shouldn't we keep going that way to work something out with the football and netball."

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Dunstall did add, however, that the Kaniva-Leeor's netball numbers are "good" for 2022.

"We'll field four teams this year, where last year we only had three," he said.

Nhill District Sporting Club Steering Committee chair Kat Colbert said Nhill was in a similar predicament concerning numbers, particularly in football.

"Nhill's numbers were quite good for our first official training last Wednesday, but when we've done a ring around it would be a struggle to fill the seniors and the reserves," Colbert said.

"We had a couple of junior Kaniva footballers play for Nhill last year when they didn't field an Under 17s team, so that's what kicked it off, the juniors really."

NDSC, KLUFC and KLUNC will continue to operate as three separate entities for the 2022 season. However, KLUFC has been working with Nhill to put together an Under 17s football side in 2022 potentially.

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