VSDCA and local football leagues face clash as COVID-19 throws scheduling into disarray
It’s the battle of the codes. But instead of football and cricket trying to lure a multi-talented youngster into the fold at the expense of the other, coronavirus has ensured the codes face an even tougher fight.
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The Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association (VSDCA) says it is prepared for a possible clash of seasons with suburban football despite being “more impacted than other cricket associations”.
The six major metropolitan football leagues have suspended their competitions until at least May 31 due to coronavirus, with a later start expected should a season be given the green-light.
VSDCA chief executive and secretary Ken Hilton said the association was awaiting local football’s next move.
“We haven’t heard anything yet, but I guess we’re just monitoring what they’re going to do with suburban football – whether they’re going to get a start and if they do get a start, if that’s going to have an impact on cricket,” Hilton said.
“The other side of it of course is the government’s position about allowing suburban sports with the social distancing restrictions.”
At present, a document signed by Cricket Victoria, AFL Victoria and the Sports Minister Martin Pakula determines the football season to be confined between April 1 and September 30 each year, and cricket to be played from October 1 until March 31.
Preston City Oval (Northern FNL), Coburg City Oval (Essendon District FL), Bayswater Oval (Eastern FNL) and Werribee’s Chirnside Park (Western Region FL) are among subbies cricket grounds also used for football finals, with a window of a few weeks of preparation needed between the respective codes’ seasons.
“We’re probably more impacted by this than other cricket associations because we’ve got what council call ‘category one grounds’,” Hilton said.
“A lot of those grounds are used by metropolitan leagues for their grand finals because obviously they want good facilities for their players to play their finals on.
“We’re probably more impacted by if suburban football went later, because you still need that three or four-week period to do the changeover, get your wicket table levelled.
“It’s not a matter of finishing football on the last Saturday in September and then rolling up and playing cricket on the first Saturday in October. In turf cricket it doesn’t happen that way.”
Hilton said the association was prepared for any reshuffling off the back of a 2019/20 season which was cut short in finals due to coronavirus, along with inclement weather and smoke haze from the Victorian bushfires causing regular disruptions.
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“I think the general feeling of the board is we’ll just do our normal fixture (at this stage),” Hilton said.
“We had a pretty challenging season (in 2019) — the forecast last summer was supposed to be hot and dry but we were contending with rain coming in on Thursdays and Fridays.
“We did some rejigging with our fixtures — we converted some two-day fixtures to one-day fixtures so we could get through our program last year because of the weather interruptions, and I guess we could do the same thing again this year.
“We usually have a mixture of eight two-day games and five one-day games in our standard fixtures, so we have got a fair degree of flexibility that we can convert some of those eight two-day games to one-day games if we have to play a condensed season.
“We might have to convert them all, depends on what our season looks like, but we have got some flexibility in our fixtures to accommodate some changes.”