THE 2020 Group 4 season is set to be vastly different from last year's thanks to a revamped fixture.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This season's action is slated to begin on the first weekend of April and will operate with an 18-round competition.
First grade will feature eight teams after the Moree Boars' request to switch from Group 19 to Group 4 was approved last month.
Meanwhile, reserve grade will be a 10-team competition after Barraba elected to return from recess and South West Robins opted to sit out the season.
Read Also:
Group 4 chairman Ray McCoy said the fixture was close to being finalised.
"The board will sit down for a meeting to ratify the fixture before bringing it to a meeting involving all the clubs on Sunday," McCoy told the Leader.
"Basically the big changes from last year are that we are starting on April 4 and 5, and we will have an 18-round season this year.
"It will look a bit different but, with the addition of Moree and Barraba, it will be a very exciting season.
"Pretty much every weekend we will be playing on both Saturday and Sunday, with a couple of exceptions.
"The first will be the Anzac Day weekend where all of our games will be moved to the Sunday.
"The second will be on May 9, when we will be taking off the Saturday to support the NRL game between the Canberra Raiders and the Wests Tigers."
McCoy said the uneven number of teams in first and reserve grade had made constructing the fixture challenging at times.
"There are eight teams in first grade and 10 in reserve grade, which means things didn't quite match up," he said.
"What we decided to do was give two first-grade teams a bye each week while their reserve-grade sides played Barraba or Manilla.
"For example, in round 1 Boggabri and Kootingal-Moonbi will have a bye in first grade while their reserve-grade sides are still playing.
"The solution allows us to keep every club's teams playing together on the same day, at the same venue."
McCoy said Group 4's proposed Premier League competition, which failed to materialise for the 2020 season, was unlikely to get off the ground in 2021.
"At the end of the day, you can only work with what you've got in front of you, which is what we've done," McCoy said.
"In regards to the Premier League, at the moment there isn't much point in discussing whether it could go ahead next year.
"That's because NSW Rugby League will be looking at all of the boundaries of every group at the end of the year, and who knows what that might look like.
"We will have to wait and see what that looks like, and go from there."