An outback West Australian football competition whose clubs held grave concerns of the impact of travelling long distances before and after games will split for the safety and retention of its players.

In an unprecedented step for the remote East Kimberley Football League, which is already distinct from the Broome-based West Kimberley competition, is playing out the 2023 season in two geographical divisions.

The league encompasses isolated towns and most Indigenous communities from the Cambridge Gulf to the Great Sandy Desert.

The competition is made up of more than 80 per cent of Indigenous players.

Opponents of the split have argued on social grounds that it prevents opportunities for players to visit family members and their mob all around the Kimberley.

Port Wyndham Crocs president Scott Timms was one of the strongest supporters of a north and south division that will restrict drives to under 100 kilometres to games.

"The problem really wasn't to do with driving night-time, but more the fatigue when you're doing 700kms one way, then 700kms back for some teams like Balgo, while for us we're doing about 400kms to Halls Creek and 400 back in one day," Timms said.

Half the visiting grounds were several hundreds of kilometres away for all clubs that included some round trips of more than 1,000 kilometres in a day.

The Crocs, along with three nearby clubs in Kununurra, put a proposal to the league's annual general meeting to split the competition's fixturing.

Clubs from all ends of the East Kimberley were in favour after a lengthy discussion.

"I think now we'll probably have six teams in north and four or five in the south to start off," Timms said.

But he expects the shorter drives will provide greater stability for clubs that over past years have varied from eight to 14 affiliated clubs.

The distances had been blamed for the collapse of the women's competition last year.

There is also no plan – just weeks from the first bounce of the season – to have teams meet in a crossover round or two this year or for finalists from both divisions to clash.

That would essentially mean dual premiers across separate geographical divisions.

"We haven't quite ironed out the kinks in all that yet," Timms said.

"We're not sure whether we'll have a single round in a midseason thing or whether it may be a combined single (representative) team from each division playing."

Timms also felt action had to be taken before players were involved in a serious crash as drivers face not only single-bridge roads, but drifting cattle and horses, extending to kangaroo and even crocodile hazards.

Most players from clubs have been forced to carpool on away trips to help minimise the risk on the roads, including a Port Wyndham convoy to keep an eye on its drivers.

"Some clubs have access to buses – sometimes mining companies would provide it to some of the smaller communities and then there's one or two clubs that were wealthy enough to afford a bus," Timms said.

There is currently not enough players across the clubs to host a reserves or an official junior-age competition, forcing some as young as 14-year-olds to take on the men.

But Timms is adamant that the restructuring of the league with its divisions in the long-term will increase the availability of players.

"It will encourage a lot more players especially in the communities that have jobs – they might be police officers and teachers that because of those big distances, they really can't put aside the time for games with other commitments," he said.

"Others in our community will have more time to enjoy the actual football games and it will help to boost the numbers up."

The forthcoming fixtures are set to start the season between mid to late April.