North Ballarat announced earlier this month it would only field a senior VFL team from next year, with players outside the Roosters' best 22 to play with local clubs in Ballarat, Geelong and suburban Melbourne rather than the VFL's reserves competition (the AFL Victoria Development League).

 

The Roosters' decision raised a potential dilemma for North, which has used the VFL reserves in the past to blood 'project' players such as international rookie Eric Wallace, who spent the entire 2013 season playing for the Roosters' reserves.

 

North and the Roosters are set to meet next Thursday to formally decide how their affiliation will work next year, talks that will also be attended by North's other VFL affiliate Werribee.

 

But North Ballarat CEO Mark Patterson told AFL.com.au the Roosters consulted with the Kangaroos prior to finalising their decision not to field a reserves team, with the two clubs reaching an understanding at that time on how the Roosters' new on-field structure would affect its aligned North players.

 

"There's pretty much an understanding any North players allocated to our side of the ledger will be playing senior (VFL) footy," Patterson said.

 

"That's just the way it will need to be because we can't have a North Melbourne-listed player not playing somewhere if he's available to play.

 

"Over the course of [our alignment] we've probably only had one North player each year who might have played development league footy.

 

"Sure it might be something that might look harsh for us if the player's not in great form, but we've just got to wear that … because regardless we think there are still more benefits than negatives."

 

North football director Geoff Walsh told AFL.com.au on Tuesday any such understanding between the clubs had yet to be formalised.

 

"In an ideal world there's no doubt all the players who are aligned to North Ballarat from our list we'd love them to play seniors," Walsh said.

 

"But I suppose we have to nut that out with them in terms of a formal discussion."

 

Unlike North Ballarat, Werribee will continue to field a reserves team in 2014.

 

As North considers how best to divide its recruits between its VFL affiliates from now on, AFL.com.au understands one possibility that has been discussed is the Roos assigning all project players to the Tigers, where they would still have the chance to find their feet in the VFL development league.

 

But Walsh stressed no decision had been made on how North would allocate its players between North Ballarat and Werribee, saying the Tigers would have to be involved in those discussions.

 

Walsh said in making that decision, the three clubs would have to consider whether assigning every project player to Werribee would place too big a burden on the Tigers.

 

Werribee general manager Mark Penaluna declined to comment when contacted by AFL.com.au on Tuesday.

 

Patterson said North Ballarat's decision to drop its reserves team had been sparked by the growing number of AFL clubs now fielding their own VFL teams.

 

He said the fact those AFL clubs did not field VFL reserves teams meant that for the Roosters the logistics of fielding two teams that increasingly played on different days and at different venues had become too hard to manage.