He hasn't missed a season of footy since 1987 but now, Canowindra Tigers' star recruit Luke Branighan is about to find out if he's going to spend his first winter away from the paddock in over three decades.
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Group 10 and Group 11 are among prominent rugby league competitions to call off their 2020 seasons and the fate of the Woodbridge Cup will be determined during Monday night's meeting or, as Andrew Pull would describe it, the competition's 'D-Day.'
The Zoom conference is expected to feature a vote between all involved clubs and when The Central Western Daily asked the former Cronulla Shark what he thought the outcome of the looming meeting would be, he was stumped.
"I don't know to tell you the truth ... this season's been a bit of a basket case and it all still feels pretty up in the air," Branighan said.
While being away from the playing side of things has been challenging for Branighan, he's had no issue keeping himself busy on the weekends as coaching and family commitments have intervened.
"I've got two kids of my own and I've been helping out coaching some of the talented kids in the area and trying to improve their skills," he said.
If the Woodbridge Cup goes ahead, Branighan believes how the competition governs the potential influx of Group 10 and Group 11 players into the league, and whether or not that would be a good thing for the competition moving forward, will be a huge decision for Cup president Andrew Pull.
"I'm not sure if it's going to be a free-for-all for Group 10 and Group 11 players," he said.
"A lot of regular players might miss game time if that happens and I don't think the Woodbridge Cup would want to lose its identity.
"Some of those loyals players might get pushed out."
"I'm not sure if it's a good thing for players from group competitions to be entering into second grade."
He did plan for the 2020 season to be his swan song but if the Woodbridge Cup campaign doesn't go ahead, there's a good chance Branighan will run around next year.
"There's a few things in the pipeline with work so we'll see what happens," he said.
While he misses the camaraderie and playing the game, he doesn't miss limping around at work at the start of every week.
"I'm feeling a lot better on Monday but it's still all a bit strange," he said.
Last week Cup chair Andrew Pull said if the competition was to go ahead, six teams will need to be primed for kick-off come July 18, which was confirmed as the start-date for senior community competitions.
"Any less than that and I don't think there's any point," Pull said looking toward Monday's meeting.
"Monday will be a month out from when the competition could start so we've got to start moving."
The Manildra Rhinos are already out of the running having pulled the pin in May, which leaves Molong, Cargo, Condobolin, Eugowra, Burrangong, Peak Hill, Grenfell, defending premiers Trundle and Branighan's Tigers as nine potential starters next month.
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