For the first time all year, and the first time since the Dragons re-entered the top grade in 2005, Moss Vale will have a “locals-only” team on Sunday, with no imported players left on the club’s books.

Interchange forwards Daniel Washbourne and Robert Stolk were released by the club earlier this week after the pair allegedly tried to hold team management to ransom.

The pair had Moss Vale’s first grade team in disarray before last Saturday night’s finals game, when they turned up only half an hour before kick off following an argument with management.

Dragons president Ross Webb said the club was happy to put its faith in the locals.

“The club felt the local boys were more excited about playing in the finals as opposed to imports who can worry too much about other things,” Webb said.

Webb said the latest incident meant Moss Vale’s board would re-think its recruitment policy in the off-season and would consider phoning referees for prospective players.

Since the start of the year, the Dragons have turned away a number of interested players from outside of the Southern Highlands.

But they also signed at least six imports, all of who were moved on by the club.

Fulu Danielson, Albert Fonofehi, Ivan Pacho, Tim Johnston, Washbourne and Stolk were all capable footballers but were unreliable when it came to training and showing up to games.

Former coach Paul Matthews is another from outside the area who parted ways with the club after only a handful of games this year.

He was responsible for bringing most of this season’s imports to the club.

Matthews said it was hard for people from outside the club to adjust to Moss Vale’s culture.

“There are some great blokes there and I still keep in contact with seven or eight of them now,” Matthews said.

“There are some cultural things though at Moss Vale that make it hard for travelling players to fit in.”

Matthews, who has offers to coach at other Group 6 clubs for next season, said he wished Moss Vale all the best with their “locals-only” team for the weekend but it was a strange time of the year to be sacking players.