Narrabri's decision to withdraw from the current season is "disappointing", and creates a major draw headache, says AFL North West spokesman Josh McKenzie.
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On Friday the club notified McKenzie of their decision to end their season prematurely, after also withdrawing from the 2017 competition mid-season, and thus reducing the 2019 competition to six teams.
The club made that decision at a meeting on Thursday night, leaving Inverell without an opponent on Saturday.
"It wasn't any secret they were struggling for numbers," McKenzie said. "And they had been ... fairly continually reassessing their position from the start of the season.
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"So it's disappointing, without offering any criticism of Narrabri, that they can't continue. We were hopeful that with the support of the league they'd be in a position to play out the rest of the season ... but I appreciate it's a difficult situation for them."
The Eagles hoped to return next season, McKenzie said.
Regarding the draw, he said: "It's problematic. There's a few options we've got to assess. There's gonna be some discussion amongst the clubs as to what suits and what's preferred.
"Once you change one thing it affects everything else. So it's a fairly complex consideration in terms of changing the draw at all."
When Narrabri pulled out in 2017, the teams slated to play them received byes, but McKenzie said that option was "in the end not popular".
He said choosing that option again would "effectively reduce a 12-game season to a 10-game season and you've got two teams sitting out [each round]".
The Eagles' departure followed the Kangaroos-Suns game last Saturday.
That happened when Tamworth opted not to travel to Moree after the under-17 game between Moree and the Tamworth Roosters was called off that day due to the Roosters coach deciding that the Moree Showground surface was unsafe for play.
The umpires and Suns senior coach Eric Faulkner subsequently determined that the ground was safe.
"That was the most disappointing thing: that they didn't even turn up," Faulkner said.
AFL North West held a meeting on Thursday night and decided to replay the match.
McKenzie said the Roos and the Suns were "exploring options" to do that, with a midweek encounter the preferred option.
"No date's been set yet," he said. "And that's equally complex [as the draw dilemma], because [we are] trying to fit that into a draw and trying to play a game between teams that are three hours apart, midweek.
"And the availability of grounds that have adequate lighting.makes that even more difficult."
McKenzie said the match being called off was "disappointing, but I probably can't comment too much further".
Kangaroos coach Tony Bishop said he was not involved in the decision not to travel to Moree.
An inspection of Moree Showground - the Suns' new home - was held on Friday and it was decided the surface was unfit for play. Saturday's games have been moved to the Suns' old home ground, Taylor Oval.
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