In the early 1960s, the Yorke Peninsula football landscape underwent major restructuring, beginning in 1961 when Moonta, Kadina, Wallaroo and Paskeville joined the Yorke Valley Football League to form a 10-team competition. The following year, Bute and Alford were added after the Western Areas Football League disbanded, briefly expanding the league to 12 teams before the closure of Alford and Point Pearce at the end of 1962 reduced numbers again. Player movement from Point Pearce to Price allowed the latter a short period of competitiveness, but ongoing player shortages saw Price enter recess in 1972, while attempts by Point Pearce to re-enter the league in 1979 were rejected due to facility concerns and flow-on effects to neighbouring clubs.

Through the 1980s and early 1990s the league continued to contract, with Port Victoria disbanding in 1985 and the competition stabilising at eight teams until further structural change in 1993. That year, clubs from the struggling Southern Yorke Peninsula Football League merged to form CMS and the Southern Eagles, re-establishing a 10-team competition and consolidating football across the region. In 1996 the league officially became the Yorke Peninsula Football League, reflecting its peninsula-wide scope, before the merger of Maitland and Arthurton into the Central Yorke Cougars in 1997 reduced the league to nine teams.