The Bulldogs were in the hunt for a third consecutive senior football premiership after ultimate success in 2018 and 2019, but Ried, who was a part of the club delegates meeting on Tuesday night where the decision to abandon the 2021 season on the eve of finals was made, believed it was the right one.

Ried sympathised with the situation Tumbarumba is in with around 60 per cent of its club outside the border bubble and unable to enter Victoria.

"It's not through a lack of wanting for the Upper Murray, it's purely the circumstances we're in and our location which makes it impossible," Ried said.

"I think there's been a lot of misinformation, but the simple fact is if Tumbarumba enter Victoria, they will have 60 per cent of their players and volunteers unavailable to put a game of footy on.

"The other aspect is if Victorian teams enter NSW, we can't have spectators come along.

"I can understand everyone's frustration and our players would be thinking the same, but there really is no way out of it to be honest.

"Going forward Victoria may be able to host crowds, but the problem is we only have five clubs and if one of our clubs can't be part of it, it really defeats the purpose.

"You've also got the issue with Victorian people going across to play at Tumbarumba and then they're mixing with people outside of the bubble on the Wagga side."

Ried credited league president Gordon Nicholas and operations manager Nadia Edwards for the leadership they've shown throughout a difficult period for competitions across the region.

"When you're making tough decisions like these, you can only make it based on the situation you're in at the time," he said.

"If we wait another week, the bubble restrictions won't change. You may be able to have crowds in Victoria, but that doesn't help our situation with Tumbarumba being able to come across.

"We might say the four Victorian teams can play, but is that fair on Tumbarumba? I don't think so, when the NSW-based team has a fair percentage of its people outside of the bubble."

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Ried doesn't expect an early end to the season for the league, which faced amalgamation talks last season, to have any impact on its future.

"The interest has been through the roof and in the 20 years Bullioh has been associated, there's never been better camaraderie," he said.

"It's a shame it's ended this way, but I'd prefer to end on this note than have a conflicted competition. There would be no integrity to push forward from this point.

"Whilst we are extremely disappointed and clearly our players will feel let down, we're fully understanding of the decision.

"Bullioh has absolutely no concerns about next year and beyond."

Federal senior coach Gerard Midson admitted his side would likely be the only one not impacted by players outside the border bubble.

"Do you wait two weeks and we're in the same situation? It just prolongs the inevitable," he said.

"From a coach and players' perspective it's disappointing, but when things are taken out of our hands, we can't do anything about it."

Midson floated the idea of allowing Upper Murray players to transfer to another league, on a COVID permit, to be able to finish off the season as potential solution.

"A lot of them are only going to play reserves where they go, but there are a few reserves slides struggling for numbers," he said.

"Why should they have footy taken away from them completely if there's an option to potentially help someone out and maybe play another four or five weeks."

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