Moree Suns 'pull the pin' on women's 2022 campaign

After three consecutive forfeits between June 4 and June 25, the Moree Suns were forced to withdraw their team from the AFL North West women's competition.

"We had a discussion with AFL North West about the viability of moving forward," club president Chris Lehman said.

"And it was decided that if we couldn't get a team in that we'd have to pull the pin on the team unfortunately, which we really didn't want to do."

Generally, when a side is short on numbers coming into a game, both clubs can agree to field fewer players and even lend players to fill gaps.

However, a number of the Suns' opponents in those rounds were also struggling to fill teams and could not spare any personnel.

"When you're getting in by the skin of your teeth each week, it's a bit hard for other teams, wondering whether or not they have a game," Lehman said.

The decision to withdraw the team "definitely sucked", Lehman said, particularly after the club's optimism leading in to the season.

However, he added, it may have been a "blessing in disguise".

"Now we can sit back and go 'Alright, we have a bit of time now. What are we doing next year?'"

The Suns' remaining female players are not without any football. They have played practice games against Gunnedah and Armidale over the last fortnight, and hope to schedule more in the coming weeks.

"It's just to try and keep those people that are interested, committed, so they can play some footy," Lehman said.

In an effort to rebuild the team for next year, the committee has come up with "a couple of ideas", one of which is to run an AFL 9s or AFLX competition in the off-season.

This, Lehman hopes, will stoke further interest in Aussie Rules from local women and begin the process of bolstering the team's numbers.

"That's something we'll be looking into to try and get the interest back," he said.

"But with a lot of people being involved in rugby league or rugby union, sometimes it's hard to draw them away from that."

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