Group 2 rugby league, North Coast Football reveal finals plan amid lockdown

Some are sticking to their finals format, other clubs have abandoned their seasons altogether. Find out what your code is doing here.

All sporting eyes will be on a Friday night announcement, but it’s got nothing to do with the NRL and everything to do with lockdown.

CEO of Group 2 rugby league Jim Anderson said the group, and the players were raring to go with a finals series if lockdown restrictions are eased.

It comes as many sporting codes have made decisions on their winter season, unsure of whether lockdowns will still be in effect.

Mr Anderson said that if lockdown was lifted on September 10, their revised schedule would be ready to go, with teams having a week of training before the qualifying semi-final on Sunday September 19.

“We’re sticking to our semi-final format … and I’ve spoken to all the clubs and they indicated they wanted a result and the board thought this was the best way,” he said.

Mr Anderson said the preliminary final would be played on a Saturday, the day before the NRL grand final, and the Group 2 grand final would also be on a Saturday.

“We see it as a great promotion to play on the Saturday,” he said.

“It’ll be daylight savings, we do the presentations after the game and they get Sunday off.”

Mr Anderson said the issue of crowd restrictions was something they would deal with when they were announced.

“We’ve considered that. and the structure of Group 2 is that the clubs take the prizemoney from the gate,” he said.

“I think clubs still want a winner, and we’ll do our utmost to formulate something.”

North Coast Football also are planning a lockdown free future, voting unanimously to hold junior and senior finals if the lockdown ends on September 10.

Action from Round 1 of the Coastal Premier League. Northern Storm played out a 2 – 2 draw with last season's premiers Coffs City United.

“The sentiment to want to finish the season with actual matches was strong,” general manager of North Coast Football Andrew Woodward said.

“Public health and safety is paramount and can’t be put at risk, but if we can get the opportunity to squeeze in a few last weeks of football in a COVID-19 safe environment, we’ll take that opportunity and run with it.”

Mr Woodward said that if the current lockdown was extended, the finals would not proceed and the season would end.

The full list of proposed finals fixtures was available from the North Coast Football website.

Other sports weren’t so lucky, with all NSW country rugby competitions, including the Mid North Coast and Far North Coast cancelled by Rugby NSW.

Nambucca Heads netball are proposing to play grand finals on September 11 if restrictions are lifted, while Woolgoolga is still deciding on a course.

Coffs Harbour, Grafton and Lower Clarence netball association have abandoned their seasons.

The Coffs Coast hockey associations are waiting to see the outcome of lockdown restrictions before making a final decision, while Grafton has just released three plans depending on when lockdown ends.

Their post states:

We think it is important that we give you all as much notice as we can, in case of any possibility of.

We will update Plan A games & times on Revolutionise, by Monday.

Plan B & C does not include any further games for the Juniors unfortunately.

Plan A (if restrictions end on 10/9)-

*11/9 (Sat) women’s semis, junior girls semis, fun games for Mods & Under 9s

*12/9 (Sun) men’s semis

*13/9 (Mon) junior boys semis

*15/9 (Wed) junior girls finals

*16/9 (Thurs) junior boys finals

*18/9 (Sat) junior grand finals boys & girls

*19/9 (Sun) senior men & women finals

*25/9 (Sat) senior grand final day

Plan B (if restrictions end on 17/9) - Seniors men & women

* midweek 1 v 4 & 2 v 3 teams to decide which teams play GF

* 25/9 (Sat) senior GF day

Plan C (if restrictions end on 24/9) Seniors men & women

* 25/9(Sat) - senior GF day, based on point score 1 v 2 teams