DUE to a series of unfortunate events the Cobargo Eels will not be fielding teams in the Group 16 competition this year.
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Club president Matthew McGovern said the club had started the year well with solid preliminary numbers.
“Basically we started off with a lot of people saying yes, so we entered, then the Group wanted to see our team,” McGovern said.
“We went from there with about 30 players, then in matter of a week 10 players moved away or were injured.”
McGovern said at that point the club was still positive of having the numbers to post a team.
“Then we lost a few more blokes and we were relying on a few veteran players.
“Then our team got graded and three blokes were deemed too good for reserve grade.”
With only 13 guaranteed players to even post a reserves squad McGovern said the club’s “resources were stretched” and couldn’t muster the “numbers to take the paddock”.
“[There is] a bit of disappointment in the Group’s decision on some players.”
The club did have numbers to run a league-tag squad and was considering following another club, but that produced dramas of its own.
“We were looking at following another club, but they’ve entered a league-tag squad of their own.”
A number of the league-tag players had indicated they had no interest in playing for another club and will wait to re-form in the 2015 season.
Meanwhile, some senior players are also looking at a season off after the decision.
McGovern said despite the strong showing of loyalty to the club, he hoped most would take the field with other clubs to at least have a run for the season.
“I hope that most of them will find another club to play for, there will be some people that won’t play at all.
“The loyalty will help us.”
The club had weighed up its options and considered merging with other clubs or areas to improve numbers, but McGovern said geography had played a big impact on the proceedings.
“[Being where we are] it was hard to join with another club.”
In the meantime, McGovern said the club would be hosting a number of events to keep everyone excited about football and look at starting strongly for next season.
“We’ll have community events … like trivia nights and that sort of stuff … to keep everyone interested in league,” he said.