Sport
Home and away in the bin, where to now for football and netball finals
The latest COVID-19 lockdown in regional Victoria may have just landed the killer blow on any of the local football and netball league’s finals hope.
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A number of local coaches believe the 2021 season could be done and dusted, with time fast decreasing for league officials and clubs to start and finish a final series.
Following the COVID-19 breakout in Shepparton on Friday, the remainder of Goulburn Valley League and Heathcote District League’s home-and-away games were cancelled, joining the Picola and District and Murray leagues in premature finishes to their season.
Now all eyes turn to whether each league can get a final series up under immense difficulty as restrictions in regional Victoria and New South Wales look set to continue until at least September.
The Riverine Herald sport team looks at each league and where they sit at the end of the home-and-away season.
GVL
Echuca has taken out five minor premierships across all grades after the GVL cancelled the remainder of the home-and-away season.
With the league erring on the side of caution heading into the weekend’s round 15 matches, the decision to cancel was a prudent call, with regional Victoria plunged into lockdown at 1pm on Saturday.
In a statement on Friday, GVL Board Chairman David Roff said: “The GVL Board has agreed unanimously to cancel the remaining two rounds of the GVL home-and-away season.
"We need to allow time for contact tracing to occur to ascertain if any close contacts exist within clubs.
"The board felt that it was in the best interest for the health and safety of everyone in all our communities to cancel all scheduled games for round 15 and 16.
"The future of the finals series will be assessed as we receive additional advice from the relevant authorities and will be discussed at a president’s meeting scheduled for early next week.”
Echuca was scheduled to play Tatura, though it was already without close to 50 per cent of its squads due to the current NSW lockdown.
Echuca's seniors, reserves, under 18s and under 16s footballers now finish the season at the top of their respective ladders.
The reserves and under 18s finished the season unbeaten, while a draw in the under 16s was the only thing standing between the side and that same feat.
Echuca's A grade netball side finishes second on the ladder behind Shepparton United, while B grade has also taken out the minor premiership with an unblemished record, sitting a full two games ahead of their nearest rival, Seymour.
B reserve mirrored their A grade counterparts with a second-place finish, as did the under 17s.
Under 15s finished fifth and will also feature in finals if it goes ahead.
- Meg Saultry
MFNL
The future of the Murray League finals is anyone's guess, says general manager Dale Norman.Week one of finals is scheduled to start this Saturday but the coronavirus outbreak in Shepparton has seen lockdown re-instated across regional Victoria - scheduled to conclude at 11.59pm on Thursday, September 2.
Round 18, the last of the ML home-and-away season, was cancelled as a result of the NSW lockdown, and Norman says the best laid contingencies are being chewed up as the situation evolves.
“I wish I could provide clarity, but everything's up in the air now,” Norman said."Anything you do plan for is getting turned on its head."Discussions are ongoing with clubs about what finals will look like. But as I said, once you make plans, it can be very quickly overturned.”
Tongala has claimed the Murray Football League minor premiership but the journey to secure a maiden flag in the MFL has been halted for the meantime.
Blues coach Jordan Souter is doubtful his side will get the chance to snap a long-standing flag drought.
“We've been waiting 37 years to break our drought,” he said.
“We thought we got ourselves set for a really good tilt at flags, but we may not get the chance to finish our good work off which is a little bit disappointing.
“Realistically, we don't know if we're going to get started again. It's out of our control, it's out of the league's control.
“We have to stay positive and hope something drastic opens up and we can get back into (playing).”
Regardless, Souter is pleased with what the club has built in 2021 following an undefeated home-and-away campaign, the first side to do so in the Murray senior competition in 14 years.
“It's been built on good culture around the club,” he said.
“We've been striving for that success the last two or three years now.
“It's filtered through the whole club. The reserves have only dropped one game for the year as well so out of the 26 senior games we've played, we've won 25."We're pretty happy with the way our seasons gone so far.”
- Josh Huntly
PDFL
The start of Picola and District Football Netball League’s final series was already on hold ahead of the regional Victoria’s latest lockdown.
The cross-border competition was manoeuvring the regional NSW lockdown, with this latest setback in Victoria further compounding the difficulty of restarting the season.
League officials are expected to meet in the next few days to discuss their options.
Mathoura has three teams qualified for finals if a series does in fact get up, with its seniors, under 17 footballers and under 17 netballers in the mix.
With his team set to play Berrigan in an elimination final, senior coach Darcy Robinson said it was hard not to take a negative view to the league’s latest setback.
“I seriously doubt footy will get back,” Robinson said.
“Every lockdown we go into, it becomes more and more of a challenge.
“I’d love it to get back, and there is that feeling of the season being uncompleted.
“The reason why we do start in September is to play finals and we had a really good opportunity at that.
“To be shut down is disappointing and frustrating. Any footy to get up would be great but we are fast running out of time, coming up against cricket season.”
A top four finish for the Timbercutters’ under 17 footballers sees the team in a qualifying final against Katandra in the second week of finals, while their netballers counterparts would also play the Cats in an elimination final in week one.
- Meg Saultry
HDFNL
Five has become four under a new finals format designed to expedite Heathcote District league finals.
The league confirmed only the top four clubs in their respective grades will now play finals, as they join other competitions in the race to host a series.
Mount Pleasant in football and Huntly in A grade netball are now out of the running.
In the event of a full season cancellation, it was also revealed the premiership would go to the minor premier - in this case, Lockington-Bamawm United.
The Cats went through the home-and-away season undefeated, and playing coach Brodie Collins credits that record to a team consisting of role players.
“It's a fairly good effort considering the year,” he said.
“I'm really happy with the work the boys have put in, not just at the start of the year but throughout the year, especially during COVID breaks.
“We rolled 30-odd players through the senior squad and everyone's played their role.”
Collins is realistic about the chances of getting back on the park this season but is hopeful of a competition in some capacity.
“The group's done really well but from our point of view the jobs not done yet,” he said.
“It would be good to get out there in front of a crowd and hopefully bring home a flag.
“It looks like we might not play until the second semi, which would be hard. But everyone's in the same boat and there's nothing that can be done really.”
- Josh Huntly