General News
10 June, 2021
Local footy set for resumption
SENIOR Hampden Football Netball League (HFNL) competitions will resume this weekend following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions on regional Victoria.
SENIOR Hampden Football Netball League (HFNL) competitions will resume this weekend following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions on regional Victoria.
After a two week hiatus, the league will return with round nine matches after it announced on Tuesday it had put together two scenarios it planned to follow in the event of any Victorian Government announcements later this week.
The first scenario was based on restrictions on adult competition still being in place, while scenario two focused on the safe resumption of competitive senior sport.
If the first scenario was enacted, under 18.5 football and all junior Saturday netball (17, 15 and 13 and under and 17 and under reserves) competitions will play but will follow round 18 of the senior draw.
If senior competition was allowed to resume safely, all Saturday competitions would with round nine.
In either scenario, the Sunday junior competitions would follow round 10 of its draws as scheduled.
HFNL executive member Troy Logan confirmed the scheduled bye for July 3 and 4 would remain in place regardless of any future fixture alterations, while an update on round seven and eight would be provided when the league had more clarity and certainty.
He said the league had implemented the scenarios to avoid confusion for this weekend and would take a week-by-week approach to forthcoming matches.
“We just wanted to communicate our plans for this weekend and once we have certainty senior competitions can go ahead we’ll communicate our plans for the next four weeks,” Logan said.
“We’re hoping we’ll be in a position to make further announcements when we have further clarity in the coming weeks but for now we’re just focusing on the short term while holding a long-term view.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank the countless volunteers who are working hard to provide opportunities for football and netball to be conducted safely.
“We encourage the entire HFNL community to be considerate of these volunteers and thank them for the amazing work they do under the current challenging circumstances.”
In this weekend’s matches, Terang Mortlake will travel to Friendly Societies Park to face South Warrnambool.
The club’s Sunday teams will play South at Mortlake’s D.C. Farran Oval.
Meanwhile, the Mininera and District Football Netball League plans to resume its competitions next Saturday, June 19 pending the allowed resumption of senior community sport.
The league will take in rounds nine to 11 as currently scheduled before the board will likely develop a new fixture for its remaining games to equalise home games among its member clubs.
The Warrnambool and District Football Netball League was also free to play this weekend, but was yet to communicate its plans when Western District News went to print.