The chief executive even floated the idea of regional clubs merging to ensure greater numbers across age groups, but that notion was shot down by Goulburn Valley Suns representatives who felt the idea lacked in practicality.
Filopoulos said the time was now to find solutions that would ensure longevity.
“It's a massive challenge and I'm very committed to the regions,” he said.
“We'd earmarked this as the year we were going to confront those challenges and have some really good discussions around ‘okay, these are the problems, how are we going to fix them collectively?'
“I always say to the regions, it's a push and pull. I'll come in and I'm going to help with my team and our board who are very committed to it, but they need to also contribute to that.
“It can't just be Football Victoria resolving all the problems, we need collegial and honest discussions with the regions in terms of how are we currently doing things and what we might have to change.”
GV Suns’ senior coach Craig Carley said there were a number of issues facing the club, with large fees and bulk travel among the factors making building playing depth a near-impossibility.
It currently costs more than $1600 a junior player for a season with the Shepparton-based NPL club, putting a huge financial strain particularly on families with multiple children with the Suns.
But with NPL clubs paying a licence fee to Football Victoria believed to be about $40 000, plus ground costs and coaching fees, clubs are limited in their ability to lower playing fees.
“I certainly think (FV) understands the issues, but I'm not sure they give enough help that I think they should,” Carley said.
“It's a hard one, we want to give everyone that opportunity to play and take on the best, but we understand it can be very, very hard for families.
“If you've got a couple of kids, the cost is big, and it's something FV and the FFA needs to look at because it shouldn't be such an expense to play a sport.”
Travelling to Melbourne every second week for matches, Carley said the Suns spent about $20 000 a season on buses and suggested an FV allowance would be beneficial to cover that unavoidable cost.
Regarding merging regional clubs, which would hypothetically have the Suns merge with the Albury area after Murray United withdrew its senior NPL participation licence earlier this year, Filopoulos said further investigation would be necessary.
“If Murray, Shepparton, Ballarat and Bendigo — let's take those four — if they can't sustain a senior program on their own, how can we maybe get a hybrid model where we combine a couple of those teams to deliver junior and senior programs, where they're narrowing the talent even further with a regional approach,” Filopoulos said.
“That's one idea that I'd like to float to the regions and I've spoken to a couple of them about it. I think we've got to find a bespoke solution to it, because let's not forget what an important role the regions have played in the past.”
But Carley said he saw no merit in that idea whatsoever.
“With Murray folding we explored our options, but for the regional sides the travel will be just as much,” Carley said.
“If you're meeting in the middle in somewhere like Wangaratta, it's basically the same as going to Melbourne and I don't see how there's any benefit to that.”
