The Tamworth Kangaroos' omission from the nominations for the 2020 AFL North West women's competition caught a few people on the hop, even the side's coach.
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Before coronavirus hit, Brett Douglas couldn't have been much happier with how things were shaping up. Looking to go one better after finishing runners-up last year, they "had great numbers".
"We had 20-25 girls running around and looked good," he said.
If anything the concern was around the men.
But then the season was put on hold and everything changed.
"When we had that break we lost all momentum," Douglas said.
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When they couldn't train they lost that contact and thinking there wasn't going to be any football, they turned their attention to other things.
Even when things did improve and it started to look like there might be a season, while the men were keen to play, they were a bit less committal.
"It's actually surprised us how it's changed completely around," he conceded.
Also the club president, Douglas said they hung off as long as they could hoping to rustle up a few more numbers but in the end it just wasn't viable to play.
"It's disappointing but I can understand it," he said.
One of the issues was the consistency of availability. They have a few nurses that play and others that could only play every second weekend, which "put a big dent" in their numbers.
For those that do want to play he said there will still be football for them. He said Annette Hadley from Moree had been in contact with him over the weekend to see if he had any players that would be interested in helping them out if needed.
"I don't know how many girls want to play but it's out there for them," he said.
He said some of the more senior players will probably enjoy a bit of a break. For some of them this would have been their fourth season.
"It will give us a chance to really rebuild for next year," he said.
The blue and white won't be completely absent from the field with the men managing to scramble together enough players, albeit at the last minute. They were one of two clubs to nominate after the original Friday (June 26) deadline, after requesting an extension from the governing body to the Saturday.
"We had a meeting and a few of us pushed to not knock it on the head," Douglas said.
"We said to the lads this is what we need.
"We've got a good young side and we just want to get them playing footy."
He said they have "roughly 20" players that are committed.
"We'll have some good weeks and other weeks where were are a bit skinny," he said.
"[But] we'll fight on and be competitive as we can."
