Group 16 Rugby League released a 14-game draw for the 2019 first-grade season.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Despite having 10 teams in the competition, Group 16 made the decision that 18 games is too much for semi-professional/amateur clubs.
"Eighteen weeks would be very demanding on a club," Group 16 president Allan Wilton said. "The clubs voted for 14 games, and that was what best suited us for this year.
"We'll look at it again next year to see how the clubs handled the additional rounds, and then revisit the draw depending on how many teams we have in 2020."
The 10 clubs will be split into a 'North' and 'South' zone. Teams will play other teams in their zone twice, and teams from the other zone either once or twice.
The north zone includes Batemans Bay, Moruya, Narooma, Tathra, and Eden, while the south zone consists of Bega, Merimbula-Pambula, Bombala, Cooma, and Jindabyne.
"We made the draw like it is to minimise the amount of travel the clubs on the borders of our group have to face, particularly Jindabyne and Batemans Bay," Mr Wilton said. "Jumping from a seven-team competition to a 10-team competition places a fair bit of pressure on the teams, so we've gone with 14 weeks to make sure there are no unnecessary forfeits this year.
"We don't have the player numbers that some of the bigger groups in CRL have, so trying to avoid teams dropping off towards the end of the year was one of our major considerations."
The season began on Saturday with Bombala defeating Cooma in three grades at the Delegate Tigers 50th Anniversary game.
Blue Heelers president, Colin Ryan said: "The new season has started very well and we are hoping that we can be as successful or even better than we were last year."
Round one will continue next weekend with all teams having a bye for the Easter weekend, before getting stuck into the main part of the schedule on April 27 and 28.
There will be a bye for the Queen's Birthday weekend on June 8 and 9, and another bye on the weekend of July 20 and 21. The finals series starts on August 10.