Local footy: COVID lockdown deals another hit to fixtures

Leagues are scrambling to work out how to deal with the second interruption to fixtures in a month.

Tyrell Lafituanai takes a kick for St Kilda City. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Local football’s on-again, off-again season has hit another stop.

Three rounds after resuming from a Covid lockdown, leagues will miss another weekend of play after the State Government today announced a “hard and fast’’ five-day shut down of the state.

At a meeting at 2.30pm AFL Victoria had told metropolitan competition officials to prepare for another break.

It left leagues scrambling to work out what to do with fixtures.

When the last lockdown occurred, the Southern league decided scheduled matches would be wiped from the draw rather than played at a later date.

The Eastern league meanwhile confirmed all five divisions would revert to a top-four knockout system played across two weeks, allowing it to squeeze in abandoned matches.

Under the revised finals system, the first-ranked side will play fourth in the opening week of the finals, while second plays third. The two winners play off in the grand final the next week.

It’s a change from the previous model which included top-five systems across Premier Division and Division 1, played across four weeks.

The Essendon District Football League kept its home-and-away fixture intact by pushing back the Premier Division and Division 1 finals and trimming Division 2 to a two-week finals series.

To the surprise of other leagues, the VAFA went ahead with a planned two-week break on July 10 and 17 rather than try to catch up on matches lost earlier.

Local football resumed on June 17, but without crowds.

Southern league CEO Lee Hartman.

“We have a bye scheduled in Division 1 men’s next week but we’ll use it,’’ Southern league CEO Lee Hartman said this afternoon.

“All other divisions and grades will unfortunately be marked as ‘match not able to proceed’.

“We knew there’d be some road humps along the way this year. Unfortunately this will be the third game that most clubs will miss, which is disappointing.

“But at the end of the day everyone’s health and wellbeing need to come first and there are plenty of exposure sites. We’ll soldier on and hopefully we can get back to playing as soon as next weekend and have a good, clean run up the finals.’’

St Kilda City senior coach Matty Hoy said: “We’re as frustrated as you can be. It’s not healthy. Not just in footy, but in life, people need routine and the break of routine twice in a month … players use footy as an escape from pressures at work or home and suddenly it’s not there again.’’

Noble Park senior coach Steve Hughes said the break “just flattens you mentally, I think’’.

“That was my first reaction, not again sort of thing,’’ he said.

Hughes wondered how the break would impact the finals system the Eastern league devised after the last lockdown.

Noble Park was due to celebrate champion player Kyle Martin’s 150th senior match on Saturday, in a top-of-the-table match with Vermont.