PIP COURTNEY, PRESENTER: For small country towns, the local footy team can be the lifeblood of the community. So what happens when the fiercest of rivals are forced to merge or face extinction? Reporter Tim Lee travelled to Victoria's Mallee to witness a history-making match.

TIM LEE, REPORTER: The Mallee is a landscape of flat, open spaces, far horizons and wheat fields fringed by low, spindly scrub. And its sparse population is bound by a shared passion.

ANDREW WILLSMORE, WALPEUP-UNDERBOOL FC: Things revolve around sport. It gels the community together, it brings people together, it's pretty much the glue that holds the entire community together, which we - we really, really need, we really need to keep and we're desperate to keep things continuing on.

FRANCIE BROWN, WALPEUP-UNDERBOOL FC: 'Cause if we didn't have our footy, I don't know what our young ones would do, yeah, 'cause it means so much to have footy in a small country town.

TIM LEE: Underbool, population 200, in Victoria's north-west, is on a main road to Adelaide, a four-hour drive west, and this small, isolated community and its football and netball clubs, known as Walpeup-Underbool, has come to the end of a long and difficult road. At the conclusion of the season, the Mallee Football League will be disbanded. So the Kangaroos must confront the grim reality and perhaps the most unpalatable prospect in football: a merger with a rival neighbouring club, Ouyen United.

JAMIE LATTA, WALPEUP-UNDERBOOL FC: The changing demographics of country areas basically force our hand and, yeah, it's a numbers game. Lack of juniors and shrinking populations make it harder and harder to get teams on the field, and as a result of that, all the little country clubs end up having to join forces.

TIM LEE: It's Thursday night and in the gathering gloom, the netballers and footballers go through their drills, the final training before they do battle on Saturday. They'll play Ouyen United for the final time. There's no love lost between the two sides, but in coming weeks, they'll have to put aside the past and negotiate joining forces to embrace the future. Some of Walpeup-Underbool's best senior players are absent. To remain competitive this year, the club has had to pay for six skilful players from elsewhere. So each Saturday, they make an eight or nine-hour return journey from Adelaide.

ANDREW WILLSMORE: We've been battling for maybe a decade, but we've fought really hard and we've had some success, which is tremendous and it's a testament to the committees and the blokes that have just fought to stay alive. And we - we're very proud of our little club.

TIM LEE: 50 kilometres to the east, the Ouyen United Demons are also in full cry. Saturday's match will have added spice. Not only is it the last time these two sides will meet, the Ouyen United clubrooms are hosting a special reunion of past players.

JARROD 'JASPER' MUNRO, OUYEN UNITED FC: It's a pretty big occasion, I believe, so make sure we're there, we're passionate, wear your colours and make sure we barrack in the respectful and the right way. So, bring on Saturday, can't wait and then hopefully we get a few wins on the board. Well done.

TIM LEE: Saturday - the big day. Steady rain dampens the ground, but none of the expectation. After all, this is cropping country and any rain at any time is always welcome.

PENNIE WISNESKE, WALPEUP-UNDERBOOL FC: Well we're all farmers and there's money in mud, I guess you could say. So, yeah, nut, it's beautiful weather.

TIM LEE: Premiership pennants flutter from an overhead crane, and at ground level, past players and officials, many resplendent and proud in the colours they once represented, mingle in an atmosphere of nostalgia and mateship. Some have crossed the continent to be here, on wonky knees and weary bones and all of them a little slower than their playing days. Over old scorebooks, there's talk of old scores, old allegiances, past battles - stories that lose nothing in the telling. All in all, a pretty historic day.

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON, REUNION ORGANIZER: Oh, look, to see the old guys walking around in their old blazers from all the old clubs and the club jumpers and - nah, fantastic day.

TIM LEE: Some wrote their names in local folklore. Many others won fame on a bigger stage elsewhere.

JAMIE LATTA: Kane Munro, a local Walpe boy, grew up in Walpeup and got picked up by the West Coast Eagles and had several seasons there. So, yeah, very proud of Kane.

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: Gordon Casey played over 100 games with Footscray and was heavily involved with coaching career. Max Crow had a great career at Essendon, then St Kilda. Trevor Poole started off at Tempy-Gorya-Patchewollock and went on to play 100 games at Richmond and a similar amount at Geelong. So, there's been some - yeah, some have done extremely well.

TIM LEE: Dennis O'Callaghan played more than 100 games for Collingwood in the 1970s, but nothing matched the rivalry of Mallee football.

DENNIS O'CALLAGHAN, FORMER VFL PLAYER: You had friends that played for the other teams and you had uncles and aunties that supported other teams. So, you found that your uncles and aunties were giving you a boo on the Saturday, but during the week, they were your uncles and aunties. You know, it was quite a different feeling, but it was a very intense rivalry, I can assure you.

TIM LEE: And mergers in the Mallee are nothing new. They've been happening since football was first played here, a little more than a century ago. Back then, there were more than 40 Mallee clubs. Over the years, they've been whittled down to the five now in the league. Three of those clubs will next year join other leagues to the south.

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: There's 43 actual clubs that will form the one new club to go to the Sunraysia League next year. So - and we've documented about 37 grounds, so they're scattered all through the Mallee.

TIM LEE: Local farmer Michael 'Boozer' Robertson, a past president of Ouyen United, has seen the decline first-hand. Tempy, his home ground, is down the road from Ouyen. Well Michael, set the scene. What was this like back in its heyday?

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: Well, in my younger days, I can remember the cars lined up two-deep around the fence and a huge crowd over at the shed and a hive of activity, three games of football, probably four or five games of netball. So, it was the thing that brought all the community together for a Saturday afternoon.

TIM LEE: And every town, really, it was the same picture.

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: Oh, yeah. Six k' down the road, Speed, they had their own side, and up to Ouyen, there was a couple of clubs, Bronzewing and Nunga as well, so ... .

TIM LEE: And really a great community focal point, rallying point. This was the occasion of the weekend, the Saturday event right through winter.

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: Oh, sure, like, it was the only chance to get together on a Saturday, and it wasn't only the football on the Saturday, but then they had the Saturday night dance at the hall just 100 metres up the road there. So they played against each other on the footy ground, belted the living crap out of each other, then spent the night chasing the opposition girls.

TIM LEE: Now, many of these once-thriving settlements are merely place names on a map, their fate sealed by the diminishing returns of farming and a shrinking population. The farms and machinery keep getting bigger. The number of farmers and demand for labour keeps falling. At some long-abandoned grounds, the Mallee scrub has reasserted its authority. Other ovals have amenities built in more recent prosperous decades, but the sound of sport is no longer heard there either.

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: The original Mallee league, which is your Murrayvilles, Tiegas, Kiamals, Ouyen, Tempy, Gorya, Speed, Underbool and Walpeup, that existed from about 1955 to 1978, so this is the end of an era. That entire league now will be one club.

TIM LEE: So with the Underbool versus Ouyen match, the talk of the imminent merger is on most lips, though it's a delicate subject.

JARROD 'JASPER' MUNRO: The two clubs have probably been at loggerheads for a while, purely because I think it's, um - we're probably two of the most passionate clubs going around.

JAMIE LATTA: Common sense dictates that it has to happen. We're all intensely parochial and it's a bitter pill to swallow, I guess, joining up with your closest and fiercest rivals, but if you don't, well, what's the alternative, basically?

COLLEEN MORRISH, OUYEN UNITED FC: To me, the merger is about this generation because they're the ones that if they don't merger, there won't be anywhere to go. So we have to be looking ahead for the junior generation to come through.

TIM LEE: In the juniors, there's a wide gulf of ages and sizes, enough to make any parent shudder. But to get a team on the ground, often 10-year-olds are up against boys up to six years older.

COACH: The under-16s game, it ranged from 16-year-old kids down to about 10-year-old kids, where up in Sunraysia, it's a more - in-the-age group. So, that's the exciting part, I s'pose, is it does create better opportunities for our juniors and then we believe we'll get - in the future we'll benefit from that. We'll get better footballers out of that, netballers out of it. So, it should be - it should probably strengthen our future by bringing 'em up through our ranks.

PENNIE WISNESKE, WALPEUP-UNDERBOOL FC: We need to make it work for everyone, really. I've got two kids. I'd love to see them continue to play netball and football and if this is the only way that it can happen, well, we need to make the most of it.

TIM LEE: They breed them tough up here, as hard as the Mallee scrub their forebears gouged from the red earth to make way for the plough. There was no-one tougher than Jamie Latta's grandpa, Les.

JAMIE LATTA: He started playing senior grade football as a 14-year-old. Against the wishes of his parents, he would sneak out of home and ride his pushbike 15 kilometres to Torrita, where he started playing senior football and continued playing senior grade football until he was 60 years old. 800 games over 46 years.

TIM LEE: That's keen. (Laughs) Jamie Latta and his father Bobby have also represented the club with distinction.

FRANCIE BROWN: Well if we didn't have a footy club, we wouldn't have a social life, yeah. I've got a young son who's home on the farm now and if he didn't have his footy, then he wouldn't have his social - there'd be nowhere to go, really, yeah, for him.

COACH: I believe it's the gluepot to the community.

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: It's the only place that brings everybody together, from the young kids to the 90-year-olds and everybody in between and everybody gets together on the Saturday and lets out their frustration abusing the opposition or cheering on their own team and then usually a few sherbets along the way, so it's a great Saturday afternoon.

SHANE BIRSS, FORMER AFL PLAYER: No, Walpe, I'm not sure of the population, but it doesn't take long to walk the streets, but they all come out to the footy on a Saturday afternoon and support and they're really loyal and great supporters.

TIM LEE: And loyalty sums up Ray Gloster. For 60 years he's been the timekeeper for the Underbool football team. Now, with the impending merger, his own time is up.

RAY GLOSTER, TIMEKEEPER: I think I'm old enough to - I'll be 89 next year, whether I've got to timekeep, so I thought let somebody else have a go, yeah.

TIM LEE: Like most, he wishes the Mallee league could remain, but concedes the drift of young people from the district makes it near impossible.

RAY GLOSTER: Yeah, kids go off to university and those sorta jobs that they get are not around our area, so they don't come back, just when they would be good footballers. So we - yeah, we lose all the talent.

TIM LEE: To stay competitive, these teams must turn over several hundred thousand dollars a year. The money comes through sponsorship, donations such as truckloads of freshly harvested grain and endless work year-round by volunteers.

NOLA BARKER, OUYEN UNITED FC: My husband Digger is over here at 8 o'clock on a Saturday morning, sweeping down the pavers, yet my pavers at home could do with a really good sweep. He's on the committee, he comes over, Thursday night he cooks the barbie. Yeah, he spends a lot of time over here, so I keep the home fires burning.

TIM LEE: And there are some novel ways to raise a quid.

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: Over the years, they've bought a lot of sheep in on agistment and the local shearers have all shore the sheep and the agistment's been given out to local farmers, so that was one fundraising. They do a lot of bunker work where they unload the bunkers. All the local farmers donate their time and trucks.

TIM LEE: Both Underbool-Walpeup and Ouyen United carry out moving grain under contract. Ouyen even owns its own impressive truck.

ANDREW WILLSMORE: We empty bunkers, we do anything to make some money, because with a small population, we have to buy in players, it's inevitable. It's a great thing. If you work for something really hard and then you see success at the end of it, it's very gratifying.

TIM LEE: Off the field, country sporting clubs bring other, often unseen, benefits.

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: It's probably an opportunity to share your troubles, and as they say, a problem shared is a problem halved. Like, it's not - you talk about debt issues and droughts and bushfires and mouse plagues, which we haven't had for a while, but it seems to make it a whole lot better when you realise your mates are going through exactly the same thing. I think isolated areas, it's a huge problem and if you become isolated and disjointed obviously mental health is more of a problem. So, the football club is one chance to bring all the community together and I think it plays a huge part in the mental health of the area.

TIM LEE: There are times when a sporting club assumes far greater importance than simply being a means of providing weekend recreation. In times of grief and loss, the role it plays and the support it provides is beyond measure. In recent years, the small town of Underbool has been struck by unimaginable tragedy. The community is still reeling and grieving from a series of accidental, but unrelated deaths, all of whom were heavily involved in the football club.

JAMIE LATTA: It's almost disrespectful to talk of it as a collective because each one - we've actually lost six fine, young men in the last four years and each one is an unthinkable tragedy. To put six together, as I said, we've run out of adjectives to describe it.

ANDREW WILLSMORE: We all went through it. We lost - we've lost six dear friends in five years that all played for the club and ... .

PENNIE WISNESKE: I don't think we would have got through it without our club. We are a big family and that's another reason it is so hard, because I know myself that without the club members, I'm not sure where we'd be. It's been - yeah.

TIM LEE: Tim Vallance and Scott Munro were the heart and soul of the football club. They lost their lives when their ultra light crashed in early 2013. Their memory is enshrined with their football jumpers in the clubrooms. All six men are remembered by end-of-season awards and trophies named after them.

JAMIE LATTA: We, yeah, have found ways to acknowledge each of them. And in dealing with these things, being together and - you know, is a massive help because if you isolate yourself, I don't think you'd be able to cope.

TIM LEE: Against that backdrop, the last-ever game against Ouyen is played out.

ANDREW WILLSMORE: I've spent most of the day in the car, actually. It's been a really emotional day.

TIM LEE: The pageantry includes a helicopter that delivers a specially-minted coin, jointly tossed skywards by decorated veterans Ray Gloster from Underbool and Norm Vallance from Kiamal. ???: You could feel the emotion with a lot of the supporters there, especially for the Mallee reunion.

TIM LEE: From the opening bounce, the main match is a bruising encounter. The home side skips away to an early lead. After half-time, the Kangaroos hit back, draw closer and briefly hit the lead. In the end, the home team prevails.

FRANCIE BROWN: And it was a tough game and there was a battle to the end really, wasn't it?

ANDREW WILLSMORE: Unfortunately, two points in the seconds, we lost by, three points in the seniors. Very competitive football.

PLAYER: A few tears after the game. Won a couple of flags; I don't think I've ever teared up after a game. So it shows - it shows how much today meant to us, boys, as players and supporters.

(Applause from audience)

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: Everybody's treated equally, from the guy who's played 500 games to the so-called star of the club or the guy who runs water for the under-16s.

FAN: Very proud. Very proud.

(Cheering from audience)

COACH: He said what I was thinking, so ... .

(Laughter from audience)

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: That's the beauty about sporting clubs in the bush. Everybody's treated the same and that's why everybody gets on so well.

COACH: You know, I rate that as good a win as you've had in a long time. So well done, credit to youse, great work. Well done.

TIM LEE: Next door, the mood is more subdued. The bruises hurt just that little bit more in defeat.

JAMIE LATTA: I'm proud as buggery of you all for the effort from start to finish. Hold your head up high, be proud. One straight kick cost us. Anyway, great effort, boys.

TIM LEE: Though it wasn't the Kangaroos' day, next season there's a far bigger game to be played.

ANDREW WILLSMORE: Hopefully, you know, these boys are gonna be arm-in-arm next year. We'll be together, we'll be one team and I just look forward to the unity that we can bring together and success that hopefully we can have.

FRANCIE BROWN: Not all of us like change, but sometimes we need change to move forward, yeah.

COLLEEN MORRISH: I was involved way back when Tiega and Kia become Ouyen Rovers. Then I was involved when Walpe-Underbool were there and it's never easy. Neither club wants to give up an identity, but it's inevitable in country and country towns.

TIM LEE: So as one chapter ends, a new one is about to begin. There'll be new heroes from the Mallee who will in time write their names into sporting folklore.

MICHAEL 'BOOZER' ROBERTSON: I'm sure the Mallee that I know will bond together and go up there and be a very, very competitive side and don't be surprised if they're not singing and celebrating a premiership in three or four years.

JAMIE LATTA: And we're all excited and beginning to embrace the concept and looking forward to all pulling together and having a red hot crack at Sunraysia next year. A whole community coming together and I've got high hopes that we can acquit ourselves very well.