COLLIE Eagles have withdrawn from Saturday's South West Football League pre-season grand final because it clashes with the club's major annual fundraiser and jumper presentation.
"Unfortunately we made the grand final and we can't play," Collie Eagles club president Shane Golding said.
"We'd love to but the grand final date was set quite a while ago and our seafood night fundraiser coincides with it.
"We were well into organising it and had sold tickets, so we couldn't call it off. It's our major fundraiser for the year and we can't start the season without those funds.
"Therefore we requested permission from the South West Football League to withdraw from the grand final."
The Collie Mail asked South West Football League General Manager John Vidos if the league was aware of a potential clash in schedules or if the match could have been shifted to earlier in the day in order for the Collie Eagles to take part in the grand final.
"We did not receive any request in writing to ask to reschedule," he said.
Arrangements had now been made for Carey Park to play Bunbury in the grand final.
Collie Eagles coach Brett Earl said it was a disappointing development.
"Grand finals are hard to get into, pre-season or season proper," he said.
"It would have been great for some of the younger ones to have a taste of finals footy."
Despite the setback, he said he was pleased with the development of the younger players moving into season 2014.
"It's been tough, we made the 2012 grand final and then lost nine players, we made the 2013 grand final and lost 12 players.
"But we are very happy with the squad we have at the moment, it's as good or better than anything in the past two years."
