Covid interruption throws local football finals into chaos

A top league administrator says local football will take a ‘massive’ hit from shortened finals series, which could potentially be played without crowds.

Caulfield Bears have qualified for the Southern league Division 2 finals but the finals format remains unclear.

Local football faces the prospect of finals series being shortened and played without crowds as leagues come to grips with a long delay to the season.

The third Covid interruption is now expected to extend to September 2, wiping away late home-and-away rounds in metropolitan football and finals matches set down for August 21 and 28.

A financial hit also looms for competitions that didn’t get on the ground in 2020.

Southern Football Netball League Lee Hartman said the Covid extension was a “shattering’’ blow.

Southern was expecting to play the last round in Division 1 men and women this Saturday and kick off finals in all grades on Saturday week.

Finals had already been pushed back by one week.

Now Southern officials will have to revise their plans.

Hartman said the league would go straight into finals when and if it resumed.

“The plan is still have a finals series but what that looks like will be determined by when we’re able to play,’’ he said.

“We’ll have to look at reducing it or seeing what other dates are available. We’re going through that now. Nothing is locked in. It will take a day or two to work out what we can do. But what we can’t do is play for the next two weeks.

“It’s shattering for all involved. We’ve only got two-thirds of the season completed and we have to go straight to finals now in all competitions. Extremely disappointing.’’

M The MPNFL Division 2 finals were supposed to start this weekend.

Hartman said leagues relied heavily on gate takings for finals.

He said they meant the difference between posting a profit and a loss.

“It’s critically important for leagues to remain sustainable,’’ Hartman said.

“We took a big blow last year and now potentially we might not have finals and even if we do we might not have crowds. It’s going to have a massive impact on league revenue.’’

The Northern Football League has released a detailed road map to its grand finals.

The league has confirmed how each week will play out, depending on when Melbourne is released from lockdown.

The home-and-away season is over and the Division 1 and 2 finals were to begin on August 28.

The Division 3 qualifying and elimination finals were due to start on August 21-22.

The Riddell District Football League is yet to confirm its finals strategy for when – and if – lockdown lifts.

The league has twice rescheduled its season and it has more wriggle room than some other competitions.

The RDFL home-and-away season was scheduled to run through to September 18 and the grand final to be held on the weekend of October 2-3.

A three-week, top-four finals series had been planned but it may change, depending on how long Melbourne is kept locked down. Expanding the finals series remains an option.

The Ballarat Football League cancelled the remainder of its home-and-away season last week and will jump straight to finals on August 28 if allowed.

The league said giving metro clubs enough time to prepare for finals was paramount with Melton and Sunbury inside the top six.

However, no plans have been announced if metropolitan Melbourne remains in lockdown past August 28.

The AFL Outer East intends to follow its road map to completing the season, according to regional general manager Aaron Bailey.

The map states the league will return to senior competitions once permission is granted by the Victorian Government and a one-week training block (two sessions) is completed, as requested by its member clubs.

“We’ve got our return to play out and we’ll follow that,’’ Bailey said.

“We will make some announcements on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning but the aim is still to finish as much as we can but we will just make an assessment over the next couple of days.’’

The Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League, which was to begin its Division 2 finals this weekend, will enact contingencies, according to AFL South East region general manager Will Dakis.

“We are working through things at the moment,’’ he said.

“We put in some contingencies last week around what it would look like should this coming weekend be cancelled, which it obviously has been, or should the weekend after be canned, so we will enact that but what exactly that means now I haven’t got an answer for you.’’

Dakis said “potentially’’ clubs could play finals just days after lockdown finishes.

“There would be a discussion with the participating clubs around their willingness to go straight in without any training,’’ he said.

“So we will need to work through that with those clubs to see where they’re at.

“Under our framework once a certain period of time is missed we require seven days training period.

“That’s what we’ve been running with throughout the year.

“But if those individual clubs have a willingness to play then we would have those discussion with them.’’