Bunnies lose players after losing place in competition

The Umina Bunnies Rugby League Club has been refused entry to the 2016 Central Coast Rugby League competition and most players have signed with other clubs.

President Shannon Sharpe said the club still had a women's league tag side playing in the Lower Hunter competition.

"A month ago, the club had 66 registered players and we had a chance to put a first-grade team and a girls' team in the Lower Hunter competition but we could not get 25 players with the will to travel," he said.

"Even if we were let back into the Central Coast competition today, all our players have left and signed with other clubs."

Mr Sharpe said the other clubs in the Central Coast Rugby League voted that the Umina Bunnies could remain in the competition at the annual general meeting in November 2015.

Days before Christmas, the Umina Bunnies received a letter from Central Coast Rugby League that gave the club seven days to conduct a full audit of its accounts.

"Everything was closing for business and the league closed down too so we sent a letter back saying that under the circumstances we couldn't do it," he said.

"Then in January the league held a meeting on their first day back and said because we missed the deadline for the audit they made a decision to kick us out of the competition.

"We went to the Country Rugby League and they were all on our side all the way through.

"The league said we had to pay $500 for an appeal so we paid that to Country Rugby League.

"At first Country said they did not have enough evidence to grant an appeal and told us we needed to complete a full audit, a plan on our player numbers, sponsorship and a plan for paying off our debts."

According to Shannon Sharpe, the Bunnies have debts of between $35,000 and $40,000.

"We did it all and then went back to Country and they said 'we don't do the appeal, you will have to go back to Central Coast Rugby League'."

Mr Sharpe said instead of granting the Peninsula club a full appeal, the local league called another meeting of its member clubs and they reversed the vote, voting by 22 to three to remove the Bunnies from the 2016 competition.

"If we had been voted back into the competition, we would have had $35,000 guaranteed sponsorship from Ettalong Diggers and we had another $15,000 signed commitments from other sponsors so we would have been able to pay our debts."

The club's new management committee continues to meet on the first Monday of each month.

Their next meeting will brainstorm ways to raise funds to pay off the club's debts.

The ladies league tag side will play its home games at Umina oval and the competition starts in mid-to-late April.

The Umina Bunnies are still exploring their legal options in terms of re-entry to the local competition in future seasons.

Interview, 17 Mar 2016

Shannon Sharpe, Umina Bunnies

Reporter: Jackie Pearson