By Trevor Jackson
THE Limestone Coast’s three major football and netball codes remain committed to playing out a finals series despite the latest setback due to the statewide lockdown.
South Australia was thrust into a seven-day lockdown on Tuesday due to an outbreak in the Adelaide suburb of Modbury, with genomic testing confirming it is the Delta strain.
Level 4 restrictions announced on Monday preluding the lockdown had already barred team and contact sport from taking place until today, but any hope of sport continuing was dashed by Tuesday’s Stay at Home order.
The Mid South Eastern Football League is the only football/netball league in the Limestone Coast which has not missed a round this season, with both the Western Border and Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara leagues previously affected.
The WBFL lost a complete round last week, with a catch-up game played between East Gambier and Casterton Sandford on the bye weekend for the SA Country Championships.
The KNTFL had previously lost a round due to South Australian restrictions on Victorian players, but went ahead the following week.
The MSEFL up until this point had been free from issues with its South Australian base and players – unfortunately that changes this weekend.
Despite the setbacks, the presidents of all three competition were committed to completing their seasons, albeit somewhat reduced.
All three have played enough football this season to validate a finals series, which now hinge on how the COVID-19 pandemic plays out.
The hardest-hit league in 2021 has been the WBFL, with the Victorian restrictions affecting Casterton Sandford’s chances to cross the border in recent weeks, but president Michael Summers was positive about the current situation.
He said at the moment it was a matter of waiting to see how everything pans out.
“This weekend will be postponed and probably tucked in somewhere,” Summers said.
“Hindsight says we will probably push it out another week … we don’t want to do that because we will clash with the Mid South East, but we will have to talk about that when we get back to some sort of normality.”
Summers said one option was to play the semi-finals over one weekend and still fit the grand final in on September 11.
Last week’s Round 13 was lost due to Victorian restrictions, which was slotted into the draw in place of Round 16, meaning every team would play each other three times.
Summers said that was the best option rather than trying to catch up one game (Casterton Sandford) at this late stage of the season.
He said if the restrictions were lifted in time, there would be scope for a valid finals series, even based on the games already played.
For MSEFL president Peter Mitchell it is a similar scenario, despite the league having played all its rounds so far.
Mitchell said it was simply a matter of waiting for more information to come out.
“We have some contingency plans in place and have a few different options we can use” he said.
“We will have a meeting to run through them and decide which way we want to proceed with them.
“It depends on how long this lockdown does continue for.
“If it goes for the seven days or gets extended or we have another one at some stage, that will be the overriding factor.”
Again Mitchell said there were enough games played to warrant a finals series.
“We can always extend beyond (the season) if we want to,” he said.
“We can have a bye on the AFL grand final if we want to go beyond – that is something to look at.
“We can also play a first semi and second semi on the same weekend, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, or we can cancel a round if we want to.
“There are all sorts of options we can look at.
“The worst case scenario is the season gets abandoned – that is the option no one wants but that could happen.”
Mitchell said it was not hard to make a final decision, even if some people do not agree with it.
“We can’t control it (COVID), all we can do is make assessments as things come out and look at what is in the best interest of our clubs and the safety of the people,” he said.
“It is no ones fault, it is what it is.
“There will always be people upset which ever way you go, but you just have to run through the details you have at hand and make that assessment at the time.”
KNTFL president Peter McLellan said while the league was in good shape at the moment, they would do what is required to finish the season if possible.
“We missed one round, this will be two and we have extended one,” he said.
“If we go back the week after, we might swap this round for the last one.
“If we miss the next three weeks we will still have another two.
“We will still have played 12 or 13 matches and that is enough (to hold finals).”
McLellan said he felt the league could not extend too much further due to bookings for caterers and other requirements.
But he said the league was committed to complete the season.
“If we can get going we will run hard and finish on the 18th of September,” McLellan said.
“If you go too long you could run into another one (lockdown).
“We would love another few matches – we have five left – this one is wiped out so we won’t pick this one up again.
“We will just push on.”
McLellan said final ladder positions could come down to match ratio, with Border Districts and Lucindale already down one match for the season.
“I think everyone in the league and state will start doing that kind of stuff,” he said.
“Victoria is doing that, we do that, netball has done it and juniors have done it for years.
“It is not always an even amount of games.
“You do the match ratio and go from there.”
While McLellan accepted football was a high priority for many in the community, he said there were other important factors to consider with the pandemic.
“We want people to get back to work,” he said.
“In a lockdown they don’t get paid.
“But we are keen to get back and when we do, we will be sprinting to the line.”
