TURVEY Park co-coach Jeremy Sykes says his family situation and his partner's up close work with the elderly left him no option but to reluctantly walk away from the post after a dramatic club meeting on Tuesday.
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Sykes and fellow Bulldogs co-coach Mark Carroll resigned at the meeting, citing a desire not to risk the health of the community after coronavirus outbreaks forced the closure of the NSW-Victoria border last week.
His partner, Tiana, gave birth to son Archie midway through last year and Sykes said coaching or playing this season wasn't worth the risk.
"I've got a little 12-month-old and another one the way and my partner works at Settler's, one of Wagga's biggest aged care facilities," Sykes said.
"I wouldn't be able to live with myself if worse came to worse, and you feel responsible for the elderly that are most vulnerable to this disease. I couldn't do this to myself or the wider community.
"It's easier to plan for worst case scenarios, and sit there and regret your best case scenario.
"'Curl' (Carroll) and I have personal reasons for stepping away because of what's going on. It's a bit bigger than football at the moment."
"We've probably got a duty of care going forward and it (not playing) would probably be the most sensible thing," Carroll said.
Bulldogs president Steven Marks said the club has received offers to coach the team "from within the Turvey Park community" and expect to make a decision by Thursday at latest.
"They (Carroll and Sykes) have things in their personal lives that have higher risk than most of us," Marks said.
"They didn't go out with any ill feeling from the club, we understood their preference. But we're working for our club as a whole and we still deem it worthwhile to play football."
Meanwhile, the seven Riverina League clubs still keen to play football this year insist playing a season remains worthwhile.
Wagga Tigers, Ganmain, Coolamon, Osborne, Leeton-Whitton, MCUE and Turvey Park are set to play after all Farrer league clubs withdrew from the AFL Riverina Championship.
AFL Riverina announced on Tuesday their intention to play an AFL Riverina Championship featuring Riverina and Farrer league clubs.
Clubs had until close of business on Wednesday to confirm their intentions.
Turvey Park president Steven Marks said the Bulldogs were comfortable with their decision to press ahead after AFL Riverina opted to delay the season by a week until next weekend.
