For the first time since its inception in 1991, Western Division's rugby league calendar won't feature the Woodbridge Cup competition.
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Cup president Andrew Pull went into Monday night's league-wide conference knowing he needed six teams to nominate for a 2020 competition to be viable.
As it turned out, only four clubs put their hand up to play this winter, leaving Pull no choice but to call off the looming season and encourage the teams to turn their attention to 2021.
Even though the viability of crowds has been a trending topic on the Group 10 grapevine, Pull says the biggest deterrent for clubs was the amount of volunteer work that was required to meet the government's COVID-19 related policies.
"The personnel requirements are pretty intense and were a major concern for clubs," Pull said.
"Every person to come through the gates would have needed to sign in and each club would need someone to police that.
The clubs who didn't want to play were really disappointed but they had genuine reasons to make the decision they did.
- Woodbridge Cup president Andrew Pull
"There was also a few uncertainties around the financial viability of the season, too."
While Pull wasn't comfortable outlining which clubs voted to play and which ones didn't, he said there was a sense of optimism shared by the executive logging in to the chat on Monday night.
"Everyone was really positive in their conversations," he said.
"The clubs who didn't want to play were really disappointed but they had genuine reasons to make the decision they did."
Pull's been at the helm since 2012 and even though the outcome of Monday's discussion was a disappointing one, he's happy with the clubs have handled the process, adding he's come to terms with the result.
"In March we basically told clubs we weren't making a decision until June," he said.
"I'm happy with how that went and happy we didn't make a decision until we had information.
"I'm fairly accepting of it ... it's just the way the world is at the moment."
While Group 10 cancelled its senior competition last week, the under 18s competition plans to keep running and while Pull said the Woodbridge Cup 19s won't go ahead this winter, he's exploring playing options for that age group.
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