Loddon Valley was due to play Warrnambool District in Game 16 of this year’s newly-named AFL Victoria Community Championships.

However, due to a lack of support for inter-league from an “overwhelming” number of clubs, the Loddon Valley board has taken the decision to withdraw from the championships, which this year include several metropolitan leagues for the first time.

“It was put to the clubs for their support, and the full support of all nine clubs wasn’t there,” a Loddon Valley spokesman said on Friday.

“If you don’t have the support of all clubs then you’re not going to be able to get the best team possible out there.

“We consulted with our clubs, the decision certainly wasn’t taken lightly and there was a number of factors that were taken into consideration.

“Fundamentally, the integrity of our league must always be the ability to field a reasonable representation of the best players and that has proven difficult throughout our involvement in the competition.

“In consultation with the clubs there was an apparent lack of interest from the players in representative football, a general reluctance from clubs to encourage players to participate and a big one is the increase in costs.”

Loddon Valley returned to inter-league football in 2010. Had the league been part of this year’s championships, the trip to Warrnambool would have been the fifth time in seven years it had to travel.

“We’ve had a raw deal travel-wise,” the spokesman said.

“We’re disappointed we’re not playing inter-league this year, but we need the full support of the clubs.

“The thing you want to be able to do with inter-league is to highlight your league.”

There will be a major void of inter-league action in the region this year, with Bendigo (Gippsland), Heathcote District (Bellarine) and North Central (Central Murray) all fixtured to play away games on Saturday, May 21, which will now be a general bye for Loddon Valley.

Bendigo, Heathcote District and North Central all play away games, despite all being higher-ranked than their opponents.

“We’re a bit disappointed with AFL Victoria not to have any game in our region,” the spokesman said.

While there’s no participation in the AFL Victoria Community Championships, Loddon Valley will still play under-18 and under-15 gala day matches against Heathcote District, and the league will still field under-17, under-15 and under-13 netball teams in junior tournaments.

Meanwhile, the league had some positive news this week with confirmation that Pyramid Hill now has the numbers to field a C Reserve netball team this season.

That leaves the only team across all football and netball grades missing in 2016 being the Mitiamo under-18 football side.

Round two games on Saturday: YCW v Bridgewater, Inglewood v Calivil United, Pyramid Hill v Newbridge, BL-Serpentine v Mitiamo.