THE Group 16 Eights tournament has been postponed to run later in the year.
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The Eights is a new-format women’s round to echo the style of the men’s Nines tournament.
The round aims to have 10 teams included in a short-format league-tag tournament, with strong initial support.
However, the long weekend was a sticking point for a number of clubs looking at signing a team and the draw has been postponed.
Organiser and Candelo-Bemboka United president Dave Allen said a decision had been made to delay the tournament due to the long weekend.
“It won’t run until possibly the next spare weekend behing the wet weather weekend in July,” Allen said.
Allen said clubs were favourably behind the concept, but had hesitations about the long weekend draw.
“Players had previous holiday plans, Saturday work commitmentsand that sort of thing,” he said.
“This was also the concern of some of the Canberra clubs including the ADFA Knights and the Bungendore Tigers.”
Milton-Ulladulla also expressed interest, but has a representative match on the Sunday.
The new proposed date now stands at July 5.
“This date will need to be ratified by Group 16 at the next general meeting on June 10,” Allen said.
Despite the delay, the Eights tournament could see as many as 10 local and interstate women’s teams playing in a new format the Panthers hope to establish as a yearly event.