As of last Friday, the Goulburn Bears do not have a senior representative team competing in 2020.
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After the state government released updated COVID-19 regulations last week, the Bears have elected to withdraw their men's team from the Spalding Waratah League Youth Men's Second Division.
"NSW Health and Sport put out an announcement to restrict sport to local competitions only, to limit the travel between regions into and out of Sydney," Bears committee member Andrew Stewart said.
The Waratah League senior seasons have been allowed to continue by the state government, but given that a majority of the teams involved are Sydney-based, the Bears thought it prudent to end their participation for this year.
With nearly 200 active cases of COVID-19 in Sydney, Stewart said the association's concern was the health of their players and the Goulburn community.
"Our concern was the boys traveling to Sydney and then traveling home," he said.
"You're traveling from your town to the stadium, and all the bio-security measures are in place. That's seven hours for our boys without eating or drinking, so you've still got to stop somewhere.
"With two trips to Sydney scheduled in the coming weeks, and with visitors from Sydney to come to Goulburn, it just wasn't worth the risk. I think the wise decision for the boys and for Goulburn as a whole is to pull them out."
The team, Stewart said, was disappointed not to continue their promising season.
After eight rounds, the Bears had won five and lost three matches, and had been ranked as high as fourth on the ladder.
It was an encouraging start for Goulburn, one which showed huge improvement from the 2019 season.
However, Stewart added, the players understood the reasons for the decision.
"It's a hard decision because we were running close to finals, but that's the way the world is," he said.
"I think Newcastle and Maitland have also pulled out.
"It really was a shock to me that the competition continued, we were prepared for it to be scrapped. To get that call that it was still going ahead was a bit of a shock
"The players were disappointed, but understood. I think they realised that it was coming, but it was disappointing for everyone really."
The cancellation does not impact local competitions, which are still scheduled to go ahead as planned.
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