Despite swirling rumors and talk of a return to the inter-town representative fixtures of the past, talk of a revived Western Premier League in football have cooled.
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Western NSW Football's Andrew Fearnley says that while the organisation had tested the waters around the idea of a competition next year, there wasn't yet enough agreement on what form it should take.
"We put out an expression of interested, but we're not in a position to commit to a representative competition in 2020," Fearnley said.
"We just don't yet have a consensus from all the different areas."
Fearnley also said that some ideas that were being considered weren't necessarily identical to how the competition had been organised in past years.
"We're still thrashing out ideas about some different possibilities, maybe looking at holding different styles of inter-town competitions that take place on certain days."
While interest still persists according to Fearnley, there's no timeline on a return.
"There's certainly some luke-warm interest at the moment, but nothing's taken shape yet."
Dubbo and District Soccer Association's secretary manager Jim Auld also said rumours never progressed beyond the initial stages.
"There was some talk about it some months back," Auld said.
While there were rumors that a push was beginning for the competition after an inter-town match between Bathurst and Dubbo was arranged to christen Bathurst's newly redeveloped Proctor Park in February of this year, the idea has not progressed beyond the early stages after meeting resistance from a variety of groups.
"You can't have just one town do it, obviously, you need everyone on board," Auld said.
"For it to get off the ground, it'd have to have the backing of the clubs in Orange, Bathurst, Parkes, Mudgee, all them, which speaking to some of them, they're not really that interested in it."
The idea has also met push back from local players, primarily the more experienced veterans any prospective premier league side would need in the roster.
"I've spoken to some of the clubs and there's a variety of opinions," Auld said.
The last iteration of the club folded late in 2012, suffering a death by a thousand cuts after the withdrawal of the Westside Panthers and Barnstoneworth teams and was shuttered after Dubbo FC withdrew from the competition and left it with only Orana Spurs, Orange and Lithgow as representatives.
"There's some that are still playing in the top grades and they say they've been there and done that and are married now with kids and such and aren't up for all the travel, some of the younger blokes are interested and they think it's a good idea."
"But it's very hard because there's a mixture of ages."
