The request was part of a submission by the the club to the Newscastle RL which had told the club it wanted to be in a position to make a clear direction by May 31.

"We didn't support that date as a cut-off to determine whether our season should or shouldn't go ahead," Pickers coach Matt Lantry said.

"They were looking at potentially the end of June as the point of current lock-down restrictions ending or some of the restrictions being lifted as the latest the competition could start.

"We are pushing for a June 15 deadline to make a decision. We thought it would be a little clearer on where the government was sitting and how we were travelling with the virus.

"By making a call a month out I think you could potentially regret your decision. By pushing it out that fortnight and being closer to the end of that 90-day period of lockdown we thought the league would be in a better position to make more of an educated decision. I think you would kick yourself calling the competition off but then see other competitions, potentially the ones which were more patient, going ahead in some format."

Lantry said the Pickers believed the league could buy itself more time by reducing preseason preparation to two weeks.

"We don't believe we need four weeks to prepare our team to be ready to go," he said.

"We're saying four weeks is great if a competition was to get off the ground, but we feel that two weeks is ample for us to have our team ready to go and ready to play.

"It's not the NRL, I don't think a trial game is a priority if it means we can get a competition on so we sort of proposed an early July start for training with a view to kick-off in early August.

"Alternative to that if an early July start wasn't feasible then we'd look at a mid-July start for training with just that two-week prep to get our competition going in August, with a view to play the full 14 rounds.

"Currently we play 16 rounds which means we play two teams three times. We wouldn't have that, it would be just everyone play each other home and away over 14 rounds.

"You would begin the finals at the start of November and finish at the end of November.

"There's a cross-over then with summer sports, especially cricket, but we are in unprecedented times and I think we have an obligation to do everything we can to get a game of footy or get our competition on.

"I know that's supported by the players."

Lantry said ultimately if the competition was to run in 2020 it needed to be financially viable for all clubs.

"The only concern for everyone involved if the competition was to go ahead is whether it is financial viable for clubs.

"We feel that we will be OK but obviously there are some other clubs out there that may be feeling it a little bit.

"If the restriction of not having more than 500 people at the one venue was in place we can't get a compeititon going as every club other than Wests needs gate, bar and canteen takings to generate some money.

"Without crowds it wouldn't be feasible and we would be looking to 2021 to resume the competition."