The Southcity coach was going to be one of two Group Nine players to make the trip to Darwin but has pulled out.

The tour starts on July 14, the same week Skinner will be in Perth for his new job.

“It sucks as it clashes with the date I was starting my new job,” Skinner said.

“They’d already booked me flights for an induction and there wasn’t much I could do unfortunately and had to pull out.

“I would have loved to have played in it but it’s something I couldn’t really do anything about and it’s a big job opportunity so I couldn’t pass that up either.” 

Skinner won’t miss any game time for Southcity, which is a big positive for the club who has struggled in the last month.

After going through the first seven rounds of the season undefeated, the Bulls have only picked up one point in the last four games.

Southcity were on the wrong side of the result again on Sunday but Skinner they were a much improved outfit against Albury.

“If Albury make the finals they are going to give it a good shake,” he said. “They are a good team.

“It could have gone either way – it was 22-all with three minutes to go and they put a little chip and chase in and scored but we were a lot better than what we were against Brothers.”