He denied the loss was a disappointment for the club.

“I thought it was a very good effort for our fellows under the circumstances,” Lewis said.

“There were a number of players unavailable (on Saturday) for different reasons. 

“We went out there under-staffed. Losing your coach at such a late date is a very disruptive influence on the side,” Lewis said.

“The players that turned up did a great job. I was very proud of them. We were down 28-0 after 20 minutes. 

“We only had 13 fresh players for first-grade; we had to double up because of the disruption that the resignation caused.”

Lewis said he had not been contacted by Ashford’s former coach, Tony Gleeson, to tell him why.

“There’s been plenty said on Facebook, but I don’t engage in Facebook conversation; he’s made his choice and that’s fine,” he said.

Gleeson said his first-grade players had been happy with his coaching, but now the morale within the club was very low.

“I have not put in a resignation. I have tried to ring Mick Lewis and Bob Walsh on numerous occasions. They won’t answer my calls, so what sort of professional club are they? I was told to put in a resignation by email,” Gleeson said.

Gleeson thinks the feud had already spilled over onto the field.

“They nearly had to forfeit on Sunday,” he said.

“Five reserve grade players had to back up and play two full games; that from going against Tingha and Goondiwindi in the Group Trials when we had to sit guys down because we had too many. They’ve lost about seven players in the A-grade.”

Gleeson accused the club of ringing players behind his back to instigate a coup against him, an accusation Lewis strongly denied. Lewis also denied the Roosters had lost seven players. 

“I did not speak to a single player. The first I heard (about it) was his resignation. He has not resigned to me at all. He resigned to two separate vice-presidents for his own reasons.” Lewis said.

“We were concerned about some aspects of his performance. We had a meeting to discuss that, and he agreed to certain actions. He did not come up with that and then resigned.”