For the second time in recent history, the Nambucca Roosters have been forced to withdraw their senior teams from the 2019 season due to lack of players.
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The Ladies League Tag, reserve and first grade sides will be forced to watch on from the sidelines.
Reserve grade coach Caryl Jarrett led the Roosters to a superb finish last season and has been left devastated.
“I'm lost for words, it's gut-wrenching. After having such a great end to last year this is heartbreaking, I just want the teams back in the comp," Jarrett said.
Despite withdrawing their teams from the competition, Jarrett is adamant the club will still be operating this year.
"The club hasn’t folded, the juniors are still going ahead, and we should field five to seven teams based on last year's numbers," she said.
"The committee is still working hard behind the scenes to have the seniors return next year... we may be down this year, but we are not out."
Rumours have persisted of money issues and infighting plaguing the embattled club, however Jarrett insists the controversies are in the past and the decision to withdraw was indirectly made by the players.
“We couldn’t field enough players - the loyal players showed up but in the end, it wasn’t enough. The president made the tough call after we weren't getting the numbers, it was the same group of people showing up to pre-season training and he didn’t think matters were going to improve," Jarrett said.
“Other clubs were fishing around and some of our players went. It strengthened those clubs but came at the cost of Nambucca falling out of the competition.
"It’s a pity the club is out for the year... that’s sport sometimes though, it just doesn’t go your way.”
With her team officially done for the year, Jarrett has decided to focus on the juniors competition, and despite others leaving, she has no interest in going to another club.
"I’m a Nambucca girl through and through, I started my playing career here, I couldn’t go anywhere else - wearing another teams jersey wouldn't feel right,” Jarrett said.
"This is my second year as president of the juniors, I'm looking forward to the start of the season. We have a few gala days coming up soon, and the season isn’t that far away, it should be a good year.
"We did well last year, and the 15s team coming up is one to watch - if they all stick around they will most likely play seniors."
"We will never know if more of the boys would have shown up, I think a lot of them would have been waiting until closer to the season start to come down, but that doesn't help us, we needed them sooner," Jarrett said.
"Some of our boys are sitting the season out; they are taking the time to let niggling injuries heal, while the others are going to Macksville and Bellingen, the two closest clubs."
