WITH about four weeks before some league's seasons begin in the region, football officials are concerned players are leaving signing decisions to the 11th hour.
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Laharum coach Robbie Miller said signing players early made it easier to prepare for the season.
"It can be hard to plan ahead when you're not sure about a few guys (and) whether they are coming or going," Miller said.
"Some guys might see it like it's just country footy and you can go wherever; but as a coach you need guys to be committing so you can move forward.
"Then you can start looking more toward the game plan and strategy. You need time to get used to each other as well."
Great Western football operations manager Matthew Delzotto said signing players early is something the club identified as a key priority.
"Going back to last season we were still chasing pretty hard in March," he said.
"This also included trying to secure the services of some really important players. We identified after last year it wasn't going to work for us going forward."
Delzotto said Great Western is surrounded by bigger clubs within other leagues.
"To try and hold out and be in the race for some of the quality players in the area wasn't going to work for us," he said.
"We decided we needed to do our work a lot earlier and identify who we needed. The club has one or two players still undecided for the 2019 season - who are returning players."
Delzotto said in his experience over the past few seasons, he noticed all the power of negotiation is held by the player.
"As a club it can be a tough and frustrating process," he said.
"Essentially you have to sell the club to the individual and then get a gauge on that they are thinking - a lot of guys keep it pretty close to their chest.
"You can find yourself hanging on tender hooks waiting to hear back from individual players.
"We have found players either want to come to our club - or they don't."
Swifts recruited heavily before the conclusion of the 2018 season - a strategy, joint coach Scott Carey said has had a positive outcome for the club.
"I think it's a case of first in best dressed," he said.
"If you can sign up your playing group before the end of the season it makes it easier to chase new players - rather than chasing your current list.
"Trying to get new players is difficult - trying to get them committed before Christmas is tough. Like many other clubs you are then left in a rush."
Carey said the decision making mindset within the current footballers is to hold off as long as possible.
"If you are able to get a core group of players to see where you are heading and commit early it makes things a lot easier," he said.
"You will always have some stragglers, that's human nature but once the core is locked down things move along pretty smoothly and the group can start working alongside one another and build a great pre-season together."
Jeparit-Rainbow president Jason Hutson said in the current football landscape, it could be difficult to know where clubs stood with players as they weighed up their options.
"A lot of blokes don't want to commit too early because they might be waiting on money or an offer from somewhere else, so it's getting harder to attract blokes early in the piece," Mr Hutson said.
"It's hard, too, because if you're waiting on two or three blokes, you might be focused on them instead of talking to another two or three you might be able to get."
AFL Wimmera-Mallee's Stephen McQueen said late signings were a common occurrence, and there were always last-minute clearances on the eve of the season.
He said the process to get players cleared could take time and could result in players missing out on round one if they were left too late.
"The Friday night before the first game there are normally a lot of phone calls and a lot of favours asked," Mr McQueen said. "You might have a situation where other clubs haven't looked at the clearance requests.
"If they're not through, I can't let them play - there's no grey area with that one. So the earlier the better."
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