mmg.com.au

A potential merger between Greater Goulburn and Murray lawn tennis associations will be discussed at a public meeting at Shepparton Lawn Tennis Club next Monday night.

The two associations’ best teams already combine for the Goulburn-Murray Premier and Premier One competitions, but officials on both sides are aiming to work under one name.

The amalgamation proposal includes competing clubs being broken into a ‘‘western’’ and ‘‘eastern’’ competition in regards to location.

Goulburn-Murray Premier League committee members Damian Smith, Brian Gledhill, Brad Adams and Graham Henderson produced the proposal together.

Smith said clubs would have the choice of placing teams in either competition and there likely would still be elite grades combining the strongest sides of each association.

‘‘There are currently a few of us on several committees doing what we can to ensure tennis runs efficiently,’’ Smith said.

‘‘We’ve got declining numbers of teams and what we really need to do is join forces, so that we can make the best of the human resources we have available to us.’’

Smith and Adams said yesterday merger talks had been ongoing for almost two years.

‘‘I hope all the Murray clubs can see the benefit of it and I hope the Greater Goulburn clubs can as well,’’ Adams said.

‘‘This meeting is the first step of getting some feedback from clubs because we had to make a start somewhere.

‘‘We hope it’s not too aggressive for some and we hope it’s aggressive enough for others.’’

Adams added that Tennis Victoria officials were keeping a close eye on the situation and may use this as a model for other associations across the state in similar situations.

‘‘There are a lot of organisations in similar situations to ours across Victoria and, for the development of the game, they probably should work together,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s credit to the Greater Goulburn guys for coming and sitting at the table with us.’’

The post-meeting plan is for club officials to discuss the proposal with members and provide feedback to the Goulburn-Murray Premier League committee via secretary Mark Young.

A revised proposal will then be sent back to clubs for further discussion before a general meeting to present the final alternative, which club delegates will vote on by the end of April.

‘‘There’s always opposition to change, particularly for something that’s run for so long and so successfully,’’ Smith said.

‘‘But, given the state of tennis compared to what it was 10 or 20 years ago, we do need to look at doing different things and we’re hoping most people will be very positive.’’

Monday’s meeting begins at 7.30pm and all interested parties are welcome to attend.

—Marc McGowan