Canberra Raiders Cup in doubt as teams pull out

Only the Woden Valley Rams and Yass Magpies were committed to fielding teams in a shortened season, which had hoped to kick off on July 18.

The Tuggeranong Bushrangers and the West Belconnen Warriors have both kiboshed playing this year, while the Queanbeyan Kangaroos were also unlikely participants.

The Queanbeyan Blues, Goulburn Bulldogs and Belconnen United Sharks have yet to make a call, although it's believed the Sharks were edging towards opting out.

Goulburn were initially keen, but were reconsidering after learning of clubs' withdrawals and will make an announcement on Monday.

The Canberra Times was unable to contact the Gungahlin Bulls or the Warriors, although it's believed the latter have already told the league of their plans to withdraw from the season.

It means the Canberra Raiders Cup could follow the lead of the group 10 and 11 competitions, with both western NSW leagues this week opting to write off 2020 and resume next year.

That's despite the NSW government opening the door for community sport to return from July 1, while their ACT counterparts will announce an earlier return date on Friday.

Canberra Region Rugby League general manager Mark Vergano was hopeful the Canberra Raiders Cup could start mid-July, but it might be with only a handful of teams.

Bushrangers president Bernard Brophy said his club was better off focusing on 2021.

"We're one of the ones that at this stage won't be participating this year," he said.

"Until [Wednesday] there was no confirmed return to play for the senior grades and we spoke to the players last week and they were of the opinion coming back to start training in the middle of winter didn't really give them too much joy.

"Plus the financial side of things for half a season's just not worth it for us.

"So we decided it's best to hopefully retain the sponsors we have and maybe a little bit more on board next year, and have a go for next season."

The NSW Rugby League's stringent guidelines have played a part in clubs' reluctance to play, given the extra workload it will place on a volunteer base that's already been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

More volunteers will be needed to adhere to protocols at training, plus changerooms will need to be cleaned thoroughly following every game.

Plus the plans for a 13-to-14-week competition to finish in October means the competition will clash with when industries like the building industry are starting to get busy again after the winter lull.

Not to mention the fact clubs will be unable to pay the players with no crowds or canteens to provide revenue streams.

Woden Valley president Steve Hicks said they were committed to fielding four teams across the grades, but admitted concerns over the protocols.

"The extra resources required to clean things, to make sure we jump through all those hoops ... it seems like there's going to be more people needed, particularly at training," Hicks said.

"It's a hoop we need to jump through and our committee recognises that.

"We've got a lot of players on our committee. It might be a matter of at some stage pulling a player out of training and saying, 'No, you're COVID dude this afternoon, away you go'."

But Magpies president Greg Smith felt it was important to give the Yass community something to look forward to after a disastrous 2020.

Bushfires, toxic air, drought, floods and then a pandemic have devastated communities across the region.

Although Smith was fighting an ongoing battle with the Yass Valley Council over how many people they could have training at once at their home ground of Walker Park.

Despite having six rugby fields, they were initially only allowed to have 10 people training there at once. They've since managed to get that increased to 10 per field.

"We were always committed to both seniors and juniors because I believe the community needed something positive to come out of it and as tough as it might be, or a shortened one, any sort of football is good to have," Smith said.

"Whether it be six rounds, eight rounds, nine rounds, we didn't hesitate at all when they first discussed it and all our players backed it 100 per cent.

"We've got all five clubs, including the Katrina Fanning (women's) side as well."