A DECISION on whether to play one more week of the Group Three/Hastings League women's nines rugby league competition will be made after Friday night's round at Stuart Park, Port Macquarie.
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"We'll talk to the players to see if they want to keep playing another week,'' Group Three chief executive Mal Drury said.
The competition has attracted eight sides from seven clubs and started on Friday October 18. It was originally set to run for six weeks, concluding on November 22.
However, three successive weeks were lost because of the bushfire crisis on the Mid North Coast so it was decided to extend the competition by three weeks. This meant the last games would be played next Friday night.
"We lost a bit of momentum with the break and the numbers have been down since,'' Mr Drury said.
Mr Drury understands the train-on squad for the North Coast team to take part in the Country Championships 13-a-side competition next year will be announced this week.
He concedes there have been some 'teething problems' with the nines but added it has been a worthwhile undertaking.
"We've introduced a lot of players to the tackle concept and they've embraced it,'' he said.
We've introduced a lot of players to the tackle concept and they've embraced it
- Group Three chief executive Mal Drury
Initially the plan was to play matches on Saturdays, but this was changed to Friday evenings because of problems with referee numbers on Saturdays.
"Friday night isn't ideal,'' Mr Drury said.
"We have people working to 5pm or even later and then having to rush to get to games in the early time slot.''
Mr Drury added there will be ongoing discussions with players as to when is the best time of year is to run the nines. However, he remains confident the nines will return again in 2020.
Group Three chairman Wayne Bridge told the Times last week there's no push by clubs to replace the women's league tag competition with tackle football in the group.
Mr Bridge was commenting on a television news report that indicated the Northern Rivers Region Rugby League (NRRL) was dropping league tag in favour of tackle next year.
However, Mr Bridge spoke to NRRL officials at the East Coast Region annual meeting held at Coffs Harbour last week, where they assured that league tag would still be part of the competition in 2020.
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