Following a meeting of clubs and the league board, the PDFNL made the announcement on Wednesday night to pull the pin on the remainder of the 2021 campaign.
The league was scheduled to hold week one of finals last weekend, but was forced to postpone after the region was plunged into lockdown.
No premiership will be awarded, but a best and fairest count is still expected to be held.
With no “meaningful return” to training and play slated until late September and a burgeoning COVID-19 crisis across the region, operations manager Shane Railton said clubs couldn’t realistically make the return for a potentially condensed finals series.
“Clubs felt the players’ interest was starting to wane a little bit. And as such it was more appropriate to make a call now rather than later,” he said.
“We’ve got clubs that haven’t played since July 10.
“You’re talking about two and a half months and then going into a finals series that was potentially going to be condensed — it just wasn’t going to happen.”
Railton said he had received word that one club had in excess of 80% of its members confined to quarantine as a result of the current coronavirus outbreak.
“We also have members of our board who are currently facing quarantine,” he said.
“Which meant that we were talking 14 days until they were out of quarantine. We still highly suspect we’ll have more people go into quarantine this week.
“Rather than string everyone along and have everyone potentially more exposed, we just made the decision to call it.”
The decision had the majority backing of clubs.
“There were 10 clubs who were completely against the season starting,” Railton said.
“The remaining five were able to field some sides but there were some who were prepared to withdraw.
“None of the clubs were interested in playing if it wasn’t a fully fledged Victoria and NSW competition.”
Mathoura Football Netball Club president Andrew Pridham said this option looked the most appropriate, as ongoing restrictions on both sides of the border continued to pose a unique challenge to sport in the region.
The Timbercutters finished seventh, and were due to face Berrigan in an elimination final.
“You just think, ‘how long is it going to be before we get a start?’” Pridham said.
“And even then, can you get crowds through? If you can’t get them in it’s going to cost money to run finals.
“Then there’s the cross-border rules. We have a split of Victorian and NSW players and our view is (finals) wasn’t going to be a true representation of each club.
“Clubs have already had a pretty hard stop-start year.”
The PDFNL becomes the latest cross-border league to cancel its season, following Upper Murray Football Netball League and Sunraysia Football and Netball League in their decision to bring an early end to 2021.
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