Queanbeyan Tigers playing coach Kade Klemke has quit the North East Australian Football League at the age of 24 to dedicate more time to the church.
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Klemke shunned interest from both Ainslie and Eastlake to stay on at the Tigers next year despite their demotion to the AFL Canberra competition.
The former Essendon listed player is coming off his best season with the Tigers, being named as the NEAFL's representative player of the year and in the competition's team of the year.
But having established the Lifecity Church in Queanbeyan earlier this year, Klemke decided he couldn't balance his church commitments with playing in the NEAFL.
Ainslie and Eastlake will be the only two ACT teams in the NEAFL next year after the Tigers and Belconnen withdrew, with the prospect of more cuts down the track.
"In the end it was more to do with what I'm doing outside of footy with the church I'm involved with," Klemke said.
"I probably didn't have the time for NEAFL. With training two nights a week and the possibility of being away Friday night and Saturday night every second week, it was going to be pretty hard with what I wanted to do.
"It's very hard to leave the Queanbeyan footy club and still being able to coach, which I love.
"I'm not the senior pastor as such, but I kind of run the church here in Queanbeyan and would also like to start up the drop-in centre in Queanbeyan down the track. I would like to devote more time to that and not just footy."
Klemke joined the Tigers as a player/coach in 2012, leading the club to the NEAFL Eastern Conference premiership that year.
"Queanbeyan gave me the opportunity to coach at a young age and I was pretty lucky to do that," Klemke said. "Now I can repay that back to them by staying at the club.
"The club's been great. We've got great volunteers and the guys we've got playing, it's just really enjoyable to be around."
Klemke was selected by Essendon with pick 50 in the 2008 AFL rookie draft, but was delisted the following season after hamstring injuries restricted him to just six VFL games.
"I thought this year was probably one of my better years of footy individually, that's why I really considered playing NEAFL," Klemke said.
"I worked really hard in the pre-season to get myself where I wanted to be. I played every game this year, including the two rep games, and my body handled it OK.
"That's why it was such a tough decision."
