Adrian Purtell has revealed his last season as Albury coach was interrupted by chemotherapy.
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The former Canberra and Penrith player was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in April.
Despite undergoing treatment, Purtell still took to the field whenever he felt he was able to.
Thunder president Rick O'Connell and the rest of the club have been in awe of Purtell's efforts.
"It was an amazing feat," O'Connell said.
"Some people who undergo chemotherapy are extremely sick and unwell for the whole period and the fact he was able to train, play and go to work was a remarkable feat.
"As a footy club we're supporting him as best we can through the period and trying to keep things as normal as possible is what Adrian wanted.
"We were in full support of that."
Purtell was hoping to get one last game in, which would have coincided with the club's charity game against Brothers on the weekend.
Purtell has coached the club for the past four seasons since returning home from the English Super League.
The Thunder are on the search for a replacement for the 36-year-old.
Meanwhile Albury are yet to decide what their finals future looks like.
Both their leaguetag and reserve grade sides finished in the top five, however border bubble issues are particularly problematic.
Group Nine have asked Albury to opt in or opt out of finals.
"I think our leaguetag will be undermanned but able to play but reserve grade might be a different story," O'Connell said.
"I haven't heard back from them yet but as we've seen previously a lot of them are dependent on working in Victoria or having the ability to cross the border.
"It makes our position with reserve grade very difficult at this point in time.
"I haven't heard back from the coach so we're all playing a waiting game."
There will be a Zoom meeting between the board and the clubs on Monday night.
However O'Connell doesn't believe their decision has to be made yet.
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