pensioner sport's such as lawn bowls, trugo went into decline in the 2000s in spite of the VTA taking steps to open the sport up to a wider age group. Initially, it dropped the age limit to 55 years old and then abolished it all together. In the 2000s, mixed gender teams also started to become the norm which allowed clubs to consolidate their membership. Women had established their own teams in the very early years of the sport with the first woman's team challenging a men's team in 1939. However, as the clubs became increasing stretched for administrators, club officials and players, women became an essential ingredient in keeping the sport going. At first, these initiatives seemed to have had little impact on halting the overall demise of the game. In 2009, when Footscray, the second-oldest trugo club in the competition closed its doors, the fate of the sport appeared to be sealed. There was a sense it was just a matter of time before the other clubs would follow. Fortunately, this pessimism was not well founded. While Footscray may have withdrawn, there were still healthy clubs keen for the sport to continue. Brunswick, in particular, had managed to attract a younger cohort of players drawing on the rapidly changing suburb it represented. Yarraville, perhaps the club proudest of its history, also undertook a number of initiatives which included reaching out to schools and opening their courts up for community events. The final challenge to this pessimistic view was the rebirth of the Footscray Trugo Club in 2018. As early as 2015 concerns over the fate of the former Footscray Courts, the oldest extant trugo courts in the sport, was causing some residents to think of the possibility of reviving the club. Then, through a series of consultations between residents, local council and neighbouring Yarraville Club, Footscray re-established itself in time for the 2018–19 season. In a show of confidence the following season, the club entered a second team in the VTA competition, something its predecessor had only managed to do some decades back. The sport is always likely to be at some risk of extinction given its limited geographical range, but there is a growing interest in the sport's connections to Victoria's railway history, the history of the inner West and to Victorian sport in general. Even amongst those Melburnians who do not play the sport, its continued