Noble Park coach Steve Hughes calls for the season to be shortened

Bulls coach Steve Hughes says the stop-start season is taking a toll on players, and leagues should play their finals as soon as possible.

Noble Park coach Steve Hughes. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Two leading coaches say local football leagues should be looking to shorten their seasons and play finals as soon as possible.

A week after competitions resumed from a second lockdown, they’re now dealing with a third interruption – and Noble Park’s Steve Hughes said clubs and players were struggling to cope with the stopping and starting.

Amid talk of AFL Victoria approaching Cricket Victoria about extending the football season to make up for rounds lost to Covid, as had been planned in 2020, Hughes is going the other way.

“My personal opinion? I think they (the Eastern Football League) need to get it done straight away, shorten the season,’’ he said this morning.

“What we’re learning is this (Covid lockdowns) is going to go on for the next couple of months.

“We’re going to come out (of lockdown) and go back in, come out, go back in. I just think local footy needs to say, ‘OK, how can we get it finished?’

“We’ve played 10 games. There’s only one side we haven’t played. Let’s play them and let’s move into a final series straight away and get this thing done, because enough is enough, I think. Mentally, it’s wearing thin on a lot of people. People are saying we’ve been going at it this year. We’ve actually been going like this for two years with uncertainty around footy. I just think they need to say, ‘OK, it’s a different world we’re living in at the moment, let’s get this done, come out, have a short couple of weeks for a final series, winner takes all, we can move on for the year’.’’

Morwell coach Denis Knight.

The Eastern league announced last week that it would play four more rounds in its Premier league before moving into a three-week finals series involving the top six clubs.

The grand final is set down for September 18.

But Hughes said no schedule could be set down with any certainty.

“It’s unrealistic with what’s going on,’’ he said. “The worst case for everyone is that you play out the final few rounds but then we go into lockdown again and you can’t have a grand final. They’ve got to bite the bullet. It might be unfair for a couple of clubs but that’s the world we’re living in. Enough is enough. Let’s just get it done. I think everyone will feel better if by the first week of September all local footy is done and premierships are awarded and everyone can take a breath and get on with other aspects of their lives.’’

Morwell coach Denis Knight said he couldn’t support any idea to extend the season.

He said mental health had become a major issue in local football.

“It’s done a lot of damage to a lot of blokes, this,’’ he said.

“I can only speak from our behalf … we were awesome last year, all our playing group and the rest of it, but when we got locked down the first time this year and we missed three weeks, it sort of knocked the shit out of everything but it was what it was. Then with the second lockdown and we missed another three weeks, it was a crushing blow. Now we’re locked down again. It’s in people’s heads, ‘Are we playing or aren’t we playing?’ The uncertainty is what’s hurting people. So if you do that (extend the season) all you’re going to do is prolong the uncertainty.’’

Cheltenham coach Des Ryan.

Morwell had three games to finish off the Gippsland league season.

But Cheltenham coach Des Ryan said extending the season would be a good option for some leagues.

He said for the “integrity of the competition’’ the Southern league needed to play three more home-and-away rounds before moving into the Division 1 finals.

Cheltenham is second on the ladder at 10-2, but it has yet to play ladder leader Dingley or third-placed St Kilda City.

AFL Victoria and Cricket Victoria came to an arrangement last year to allow football finals to be staged in October.

As it was no community football went ahead.

The Premier Cricket season started on November 28 and finished on April 17.

But AFL Victoria this afternoon ruled out another approach to CV.

“AFL Victoria is committed to supporting football returning as soon as possible,’’ a spokesman said.

“We want seasons completed and premierships won in 2021 and our community football season to commence when it normally would in 2022.

“All metropolitan leagues have indicated their commitment to completing seasons within the original fixture timeframe, which AFL Victoria supports, and we haven’t had discussions with Cricket Victoria.’’