GROUP Three Rugby League clubs are currently considering a proposed draw for the 2017 competition that would start with a pre-season on April 1 and conclude with grand finals on Sunday September 17.
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The competition-proper would run for 14 weeks and include two spare weekends that can be used for deferred games.
Clubs will vote on the draw at the annual meeting on Sunday November 13 at the Wingham Services Club.
Group Three secretary Barrie Smith said this season’s 18 week competition was too long and contributed to problems some clubs had fielding minor grade teams towards the end of the campaign.
Taree City, Forster-Tuncurry and Macleay Valley were all forced to forfeit either reserve grade or under 18 fixtures in the last month of the season.
A lack of spare weekends in the original draw also forced the group to extend the competition by a week when matches were postponed on June 4/5 because of wet weather.
The unavailability of the Port Macquarie Regional Stadium on some weekends further complicated the revised draw and resulted in Macleay Valley playing five consecutive away matches which contributed to the club’s problems.
Group delegates agreed to extend the competition at a specially convened meeting in mid-June.
Mr Smith said Port Macquarie-Hastings Council has contacted him with dates when the regional stadium will or could be unavailable next year. Port Macquarie and Port City both use the stadium for home fixtures.
“The council has tentative bookings for the weekend of April 28/29 and for June 17/18,’’ he said.
He explained the proposed draw works around these dates.
Mr Smith said the group won’t put the competition back again for any reason.
“We have a bit of latitude with the spare weekends, but if we have to we will play matches mid-week or even scrap a round if there’s problems with wet weather,’’ he said.
The pre-season will be underway from April 1 while no football will be played over Easter (April 14-17). The season launch will be on April 21 and the season-proper will kick off on April 28-29.
The last round will be played on August 19/20 with the semi-finals to start August 26.
As is group’s policy, venues for fixtures in the finals series won’t be determined until the composition of the final five is known.
Mr Smith hopes this will pass into law at the annual meeting.
Meanwhile Wingham Tigers expect to announce the club’s first grade coach for 2017 within a fortnight.
The club has confirmed that this season’s captain-coach, Kurt Lewis, will be staying as a player.
