The Devils broke the shock news via Facebook on Wednesday morning, declaring they had decided to remove teams from all senior grades of football and netball.

The statement said Darley's decision was made to ensure the wellbeing of people during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Darley FNC will put the health of players, coaching staff, supporters, volunteers, trainers and all of their families as our number one priority during this pandemic," the statement read.

"The repercussions a positive result or a spread could have on our Darley family, and then the impact this can then have on our local businesses and broader community, that our players are apart of is paramount to our decision."

Listen to Darley president Mark Shelley here.

Darley president Mark Shelley told The Courier that the club's decision came following Tuesday night's meeting of BFNL presidents, where a definitive call on the season wasn't made.

"(The meeting) was probably the catalyst for us to turn around and make that announcement," he said.

"And that's no reflection on the BFNL and the board at all. I clearly understand there's processes and protocols that need to take place.

"I certainly had a lot of informal discussions with a lot of our senior players over the past week or so and clearly most of the playing group was of the mindset to gear up for 2021."

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Shelley felt other clubs might now follow Darley's lead and make some tough calls.

"There will probably be other clubs I would think now that make a similar decision," he said.

"And I don't know what decision that would be, (but) our decision was clearly just based around protecting our own club and its interests," he said.

Darley's junior teams might still compete in a season if one goes ahead, Shelley said.

The Ballarat Football Netball League is set to make a decision on the 2020 season on Friday.

League chairman Adrian Bettio had previously said if one club pulled out of the season, the league would have no option but to cancel season 2020.

You can read Darley's full statement here.