COOLAMON has delivered another blow to the potential running of the AFL Riverina Championship after officially announcing their withdrawal from playing senior football and netball this season.
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The Hoppers' decision leaves just six Riverina League clubs remaining that are willing to play this year after several others dropped out following a number of team meetings on Tuesday night.
Coolamon cited uncertainty over where players in rival teams may have traveled from as a major reason, despite AFL Riverina doing everything in its power to reduce the risk through a Covid-19 player transfer policy.
"The board agreed to participate in the Gallagher AFL Riverina Championship for the revised 2020 season only on the condition of the mandatory exclusion of non-Riverina based players and coaches," the club said via a statement on their website.
"Unfortunately, AFL Riverina was unable to enforce such an exclusion, legally or otherwise, and on this basis the club will not participate in the championships.
"We are very grateful for everything the AFL Riverina has tried to do to accommodate us in this competition."
Hoppers co-coach Jake Barrett said the government, directive advising strongly against travelling to and from Border towns, which AFL Riverina has also adopted, forced their hand.
"We had a few conditions we set to AFL Riverina for us to play and unfortunately they couldn't be met, so it was a pretty clear decision for us that the safety of the community and our players and volunteers needed to be put first," Barrett said.
"It's crazy times, you'd love to play some footy but that comes first."
"The government is saying they don't want people travelling from these towns and it's a big concern. At the end of the day our decision came down to we didn't want to risk it (coronavirus) coming to Coolamon or even Wagga."
The Hoppers said in their statement it was a gruelling process to come to their decision.
"There is no 'common sense' decision about something so uncommon. Common sense does mean working responsibly with AFL Riverina and supporting the integrity of the competition to the best of the club's ability while not compromising the safety of players, volunteers and the wider community.
"The club is proud of the way it has invested in the preparation for the season. We are extremely disappointed that things haven't worked out the way we would like, but make no apologies for determining that on the balance of argument, with continuing uncertainty over Covid-19's progression, conditional participation was the best we could offer.
"We understand that not everyone will agree with this decision, while others may feel it's taken too long to come to it.
"But it was important we considered all the factors before making what we considered to be a major decision for our club."
AFL Riverina announced their intention to run an AFL Riverina Championship featuring Riverina and Farrer League clubs on Tuesday, and imposed a deadline for decisions of close of business Wednesday.
AFL Riverina chairman Michael Irons said on Tuesday they would "need 50 per cent of teams. At least" of the 12 teams then yet to make an official decision for a competition to be viable.
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