Group 11 secretary Paul Loxley confirmed the decision last week, meaning the very best individual players in the competition won't be recognised this year.

Loxley revealed clubs across the competition had struggled to complete the best and fairest voting each week this season and he said one of the main reasons for that is all are currently stretched for volunteers.

It's one of the reasons the planned All Stars match this season has also been abandoned.

"I'm a firm believer that if you're going to do something you've got to do it properly," Loxley said.

"There's things happening with people not doing best and fairest on match sheets and I tried to do something about it but then I realised we've still got a full competition but I didn't realise people who went to the footy pre-COVID, some of them found other things to do.

"Realistically, most of our clubs are really struggling to put a gameday together."

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With so many clubs having changed board members or coaching staff since the last time a season was contested in 2019, Loxley admitted there was a bit of an information issue in Group 11 as not everyone was aware of gameday responsibilities.

Fining clubs for errors was an option but that was quickly abandoned as the Group 11 board didn't want that given clubs and their sponsors were still feeling the effects of COVID.

Restarting voting was another option but Loxley said he wanted to "preserve the integrity" of the awards and after discussing the matter with Group 11 president Bob Walsh and the board the decision was made to abandon it for 2021.

"I don't think the players will really worry and I'd be surprised if they all knew there was a three, two, one (each week) and that's the issue," Loxley said.

The matter will be discussed with clubs during the off-season and it will be decided how the honours will be awarded next season should Group 11 remain a standalone competition rather than being part of a proposed combined competition with Group 10 in 2022.

"If we're going to do it, we're going to do it properly and everyone can agree with what we're going to do, explicitly, and they'll agree to a monetary consequence and if they don't do it they'll be fined because I think they're one of the best parts of the presentation night, to be honest."

Ensuring the integrity of the All Stars concept was also considered when deciding to cancel this year's event.

The Indigenous All Stars had been scheduled to tackle the Group 11 All Stars on Saturday, July 10.

Loxley said there had been little discussion among clubs about the round as they were purely focused on their week-to-week commitments.

"If we're going to do it we've got to do it properly and we've got to respect what it all means," he said.

"Again, we'll talk to the clubs about if and when they want to play it."

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