Country footy: Mininera and District league games forfeited

Two country clubs were forced to forfeit games on Saturday due to Covid outbreaks with the points being awarded to their opponents.

Two country clubs have been awarded wins after their opponents were forced to forfeit games on Saturday due to Covid outbreaks.

Mininera and District league clubs Hawkesdale Macarthur and Woorndoo Mortlake both cancelled their fixtures against Ararat Eagles and Tatyoon respectively.

On Friday afternoon, league officials said the games had “been forfeited and will not be rescheduled with Tatyoon and Ararat getting four points each”.

Supporters of the league questioned the decision to not spilt the points.

“Maybe the league should get with the times and split points the same as every other league does,” one person said.

In response, the MDFNL account said the decision was based on a ruling by club presidents earlier in the year.

“The decision not to split the point was decided by voting at a club forum made up of the presidents of each club,” it said.

All other games in the competition still went ahead.

The results mean Tatyoon and Ararat both remain undefeated at the top of the ladder.

Woorndoo Mortlake will take on the Eagles next weekend while Hawkesdale Macarthur hosts Great Western.

EARLIER

A Covid outbreak has forced a country club to cancel all its games this weekend.

Mininera and District league club Woorndoo Mortlake announced on Wednesday afternoon it would be cancelling upcoming footy and netball games against Tatyoon on Saturday.

It comes after the club was “hit with a number of Covid cases” which had impacted footballers, netballers and volunteers since its last fixture against Hawkesdale Macarthur.

Training planned for Thursday night had also been cancelled by the club as confirmed by club secretary Jill Wade in a social media post.

“Please stay alert and test if you show any symptoms,” she said.

“Stay safe everyone and hopefully by taking this action, will see us back on the playing field on May 28th.”

In its own social media post, the Mininera and District league acknowledged while people are “sick” of hearing about Covid it served as a reminder for people to get tested.

“Thank you to Woorndoo Mortlake FNC for making a sensible decision around Covid,” the post said.

The senior football clash between Tatyoon and the Tigers was shaping to be an exciting one with the former sitting on top of the ladder undefeated after four rounds.

Meanwhile, Woorndoo Mortlake sits in fourth position with a 3-1 record.

Last weekend, the Ballarat Football League called off a reserve grade match between Ballarat and Melton with the former unable to field a side.

“As a result of the game being cancelled, the points for this game shall be split and each team receive two points,” the league said in a statement.

Ballarat was also forced to make seven changes to its senior side eventually going onto lose by 95 points.

Meanwhile in metropolitan Melbourne, clubs are now battling a debilitating full strain with several clubs forced to make mass changes every week.