GRIFFITH Blacks president Clint Robertson fears the Australian Rugby Union will kill country clubs if it doesn't reverse a decision to introduce a user-pay system for insurance and registration fees.

From next year, individual players will have to pay $168.50 (senior), $79.50 (under 8-18) or $44 (under 6-7) to cover insurance and registration costs before they run on the field.

In the past, players were covered collectively when clubs registered teams with their associations.

Under the old system, Robertson revealed the Blacks would shell out around $5700 a year to register four sides (two senior, women's and under 17) to play in the Southern Inland Rugby Union.

Footballers who played for any of those teams were automatically registered and insured.

But with senior players now expected to cough up nearly $170, Robertson believes many will either stop playing or switch to rugby league, where they could potentially receive match payments.

"If we expect players to pay $168.50 before they run out on the paddock, they just won't play," Robertson said.

"I've talked to the other guys within the zone, and it would not be unrealistic to say we would lose 40 to 50 per cent of our players."

Robertson said it would be impossible for regional clubs to cover the cost on behalf of their players.

With between 120 and 130 registrations expected next season, the Blacks would face a crippling bill of around $21,000.

"Clubs like ours, bush clubs in Australia, would go bust within two years," Robertson said.

"It's a double-edged sword, whichever way we go.

"If we make players pay, they won't play and we'll lose half our playing base.

"Then when we lose half our playing base our major sponsor, being Coro Club, can go, 'Hang on, you've got half the player base, so we're going to pay half the sponsorship.

"We'll die if that happens.

"If we went the other way and paid it, we're looking at a cost of around $21,000.

"We'd be lucky to make it into the second year."

While many sports such as rugby league and soccer already have individual player registration, Robertson said the ARU would inflict irreversible damage on grassroots clubs if didn't revert to the old model.

"This is just a cash grab from the ARU because they're broke," he said.

"You will see a revolt from the whole of country rugby in the whole of Australia towards the ARU saying, 'No this isn't happening. You're not doing this to us because it will break us'.

"It (the ARU) has been run as a bloody hobby, not a business. If you can't add numbers up, what's coming in and what's going out, you shouldn't be doing the job.

"At bush clubs we do that every day and look at the numbers coming in and the numbers coming out.

"We run to a budget. Most clubs cost between $40,000 and $50,000 a year to run. Every other club is in the same boat as us. There's no reason why our costs should increase 300 per cent because the blokes at the top fail at their job."