Group 4 chairman Ray McCoy said on Thursday morning that the Group had received a letter from Bendemeer on Wednesday, in which the club announced their withdrawal from first grade due to a “lack of committed first-grade-quality players”.

McCoy said Group 4 met with Bendemeer’s players at training on Tuesday night “and addressed the players as to their commitment to 2018” – the result of the side’s poor start to the season, or a “red flag”, as McCoy put it.

He denied the Mountain Men had overextended themselves by fielding first-grade and reserve-grade sides this season after playing in the now-defunct second division in 2017. And he said Group 4 did its “due diligence” before signing off on Bendemeer’s nomination to play in the top grade.

McCoy said: “One of the things we’ve done is monitor all the new clubs that came forward [into first grade] in 2018, because it was always going to be a year of compromise. All the other clubs, they’ve made that step forward.”

He added: “At the end of the day the right decision has been made [regarding Bendemeer’s exit] to move forward.”

McCoy said people would judge the success of the revamp based on “their own personal views” but Group 4 had made the right decision “to take the game forward” with the support of the CRL. 

In his letter to Group 4, Mountain Men president Paul Craig said: “We intend on maintaining our commitment to reserve grade and ladies league tag, which we are confident will be competitive each week.”

Gunnedah coach Sean Hayne said Bendemeer’s decision would result in the Bulldogs going four weekends without a match.

Gunnedah were scheduled to meet the Mountain Men on June 17, after being sidelined the two weeks prior to that due to byes (a general bye and a June long weekend bye). There is also a bye for the June 23-24 weekend due to State of Origin II.

Hayne said missing a month of footy mid-year was akin to “going back to the start” fitness wise for his players. 

Regarding the Mountain Men’s demise, he said he would “let other people draw their own conclusions – I’ll stay out of that”.

Boggabri were due to meet Bendemeer on Saturday in a match Roos coach Shane Rampling had described as “must win” for his winless side, which now gets two points for the bye.

Rampling said the Mountain Men’s demise was “a bit disappointing” for the competition. But he added: “I can totally understand why they’ve done it. They just weren’t strong enough to compete at a first-grade standard.

“It’s better to do it [pull out] early than soldier on and get flogged each week. That does no one any favours.”

He added: “Hopefully the Group will try and bring another club up [to first grade] next year to try and fill the void to make it an eight-team comp.”

Bendemeer’s withdrawal means it is now a seven-team competition.

At the end of last season, Group 4 announced it would overhaul its then six-team premier competition after another year of lopsided results. That resulted in the popular and successful second division being dissolved.

And before the 2018 season started, Collegian and Manilla withdrew from Group 4.

Bundarra – the 2017 second-division premiers who were denied re-entry into Group 4 this season – will also sit out 2018. While Walcha, Uralla and Bingara left Group 4 for Group 19’s new second-division competition. 

Group 4 has instituted the following conditions relating to Bendemeer’s exit: