The Magpies were left as the only team in the North East Football Union last season when Scottsdale Crows called time, and had a bid to join the NTFA rejected late last year.

Football will return to Winnaleah this weekend as George Town host Bridgenorth in the NTFA’s first division, but the match could signal the end of the line for the 113-year-old club unless a dramatic show of support is made. 

Winnaleah president Lester Rainbow said the future of his club would be decided by the community’s response to its first football game in 2018.

“This could well be the end of Winnaleah,” Rainbow said. 

“What we’re trying to do is to find enough community support out of this day to justify putting in another submission (to the NTFA). 

“A lot of things have changed in the North-East, (so we want people to) come along and tell us what they want.

“If they don’t come along, that’s a pretty good indication they don’t care.”

The NTFA will undergo a restructure from next season, expanding from two tiers to three tiers to provide a better pathway for Northern players.

The third-tier division 2 competition requires clubs to field just one senior team, but Rainbow said his club would only consider applying for admission to the second-tier division 1 competition.

Such an application would require the Magpies to provide the NTFA with a list of 70 committed players – a tough ask in light of many players dispersing to other clubs this season.

“I’m not sure we would wish to participate in a one-team competition… as remote as what we are, if we got a couple of injuries where would we get the other players from?

“So it's really two teams or nothing at this stage, that’s what we’re aiming for.

“But when we’ve cleared all of our players to George Town, Scottsdale and everywhere in between, we haven’t got any players to put on the list.”

Saturday’s festivities – billed as a chance to say goodbye to the NEFU - begin with an under-12 football clinic at 8.30am before the under-18, reserves and senior matches get under way.

An ‘NEFU medal’ will be awarded to the best player on the ground in both the senior and reserves matches.

A netball fixture between Derby and Branxholm will also take place next to the ground.

“What we want to have is an old-fashioned family day out,” Rainbow said.

“We want to have our chance to see whether we’ve got the support to continue, or whether we pull up stumps at the end of the year and say after 113 years ‘that’s it guys’.”