THE abandonment of the Western Border football and netball 2020 season on Monday night confirmed the fears of many, with COVID-19 taking another prisoner.
Hit hardest by the cancellation are those within smaller communities which revolve heavily around their football and netball club.
Millicent is the prime example and it will be a long and unfamiliar nine months of waiting for mainstream country football action to return to weekend schedules.
The Millicent Football Club is one of only two Western Border football clubs based outside Mount Gambier and in a town where you can not go anywhere without bumping into someone connected to the Saints, the announcement adds another strain to members of the community.
However, it is not all bad news, with a junior league competition still expected to run.
With that in mind, Millicent football president Joel Redman told The South Eastern Times the club’s immediate focus is on the juniors and keeping them going in preparation for the junior competition, while catering for the senior players as they enter a lengthy off-season is also high on the agenda.
“Juniors are a huge priority and we will actively engage with our seniors to see what they want to do to continue giving themselves the opportunities to train and develop,” he said.
“We have a pretty good team of volunteers who run our junior footy programs, so I will look to them.”
Redman said the engagement from the young Saints had been strong since training was able to resume and the aim is to keep them moving forward in the lead up to the junior competition, whichever format it may end up.
“Pretty much all of our juniors have trained actively over the past three or four weeks and we have had solid numbers,” he said.
“I think that (side of things) will be pretty easy – it will be re-engaging senior players and what we need to do next that will be more important.”
As for the proposed “super league” which has been suggested by WBFL president Michael Summers, Redman said the club is not at the point in its discussions where it could voice an opinion on whether the Saints would take part.
“There will be a lot of discussions between our coaching staff and our footy committee making sure the decision that we make on participating in a different type of competition is right for us before we jump down that path,” Redman said.
“It is more about the active retention of our players and making sure they are comfortable and happy the Millicent footy club can accommodate them training and stuff like that when they want to.”
However, one thing is for sure, when country football does return in 2021, it is unlikely there will be any parking spaces available around McLaughlin Park – or any ground – when the first ball is bounced for the season.
“I suspect there will be some leftover effects of COVID regardless of what we do, but I think the fact we can have a normalised competition is something everyone is going to be looking forward to,” Redman said.
