A date set for Football Stanthorpe to make a decision

All six clubs in the competition are expected to provide Football Stanthorpe with a decision on what they want to do going forward.

More will be known about the fate of the Football Stanthorpe season early next week.

NEXT Tuesday will be D-Day for Football Stanthorpe with the organisation expected to make a final decision on the 2020 season.

A meeting was held last Friday involving representatives from all six clubs.

Discussion about how a season would look, if one were to occur, was discussed with all clubs given until June 2 to make a decision about how they want to proceed Football Stanthorpe president Cameron Gow said.

“I went around the room one club at a time And asked what their thoughts were, had they been in contact with members and what was their general feeling about where we’ve been, where we are and moving forward,” Mr Gow said.

“We’ve asked them to go back and have their own club meetings and come back with formal positions on a few different questions and one of them is whether their club wants to have a season.

“Do they want Football Stanthorpe to put something together and do a draft draw?”

It comes after Toowoomba Rugby League announced yesterday they had cancelled their 2020 season, leaving no footy for the Stanthorpe Gremlins this year.

The TRL’s biggest concern was the stipulation of only having 100 people at a venue under Stage 3 of the COVID-19 restrictions.

Fences, barricades, volunteers keeping on top of numbers of people at the venue are all things being discussed.

“I understand there’s been templates made available by Football Queensland about how those restrictions will look,” Mr Gow said.

“There was also the weekends announcement from the State Government that they’ll help sporting clubs get up and running again.

“I even heard about some subsidies because we haven’t had any fundraising and we need things like fundraising to run a season.

“So we will run a season if that’s what the clubs want done.”

If a season was to eventuate, it’d be July some time at the earliest that a ball could be kicked.

A two-round competition with no finals is one option, or two rounds and a shortened finals series could be another according to Mr Gow.

“That’s why we want clubs to come back to us on how it might operate.”

He believes there may even be a chance Tenterfield could be included still.

“There is a chance,” Mr Gow said.

“Gold Coast clubs have been asking that about soccer teams around the Tweed they play against.

“If they get that dispensation so should Stanthorpe.”

More will be known after next Tuesday night’s meeting.

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