Melbourne local football leagues face fixturing dilemma after lockdown

A number of local footy competitions across Melbourne will have at least three weeks off after Victoria’s lockdown was extended. VOTE IN OUR POLL

John Jorgensen can’t hold he mark. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Melbourne’s suburban football leagues face a fixturing dilemma coming out of lockdown.

Victoria’s current circuit-breaker lockdown has been extended for another week with play now unlikely to resume before June 19 in some competitions.

The Queen’s Birthday weekend falls on June 12-14, traditionally a bye week for local leagues.

The Northern, Southern, Eastern, South East Women’s, Western, AFL Outer East and Victorian Amateur leagues will scrap Round 8 and 9 fixtures under their respective Covid bylaws and are not expected to replay any games on the public holiday long weekend.

The Riddell District league had hopes of replaying one round but with the lockdown extended to two weeks is also expected to cancel games.

The Essendon District league has yet to announce its plans.

However, the EDFL fixture could work in its favour with June 5-12 meant to be a split round.

Strathmore and Aberfeldie were due to play a standalone match on the Queen’s Birthday weekend and the June 5 matches could easily be rescheduled.

The EFNL and NFNL were also due to have split rounds but across June 12-19, meaning cancelled matches are less likely to be rescheduled.

The WRFL had fixtured a full round of Division 3 matches with the top two tiers meant to have a bye.

The SFNL, SEWFL, AFLOE and VAFA have no games scheduled for June 12.

Meanwhile, the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League will look to buck the trend, playing catch up games on the Queen’s Birthday weekend and rescheduling games at the end of the regular season.

The move will also push the league’s finals back one week.

Country leagues are also facing the possibility of no football for the better part of a month even though the vast majority of towns and cities have been Covid-free.

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Should Victoria come out of lockdown on time it will at least allow clubs to resume training before playing official matches.

There was widespread consternation in clubland around an immediate return to games without training.

Players would not have taken the field since May 29, while training has been called off since June 3.

There has been an unprecedented number of injuries this season and it was feared that trend could be worsened without at least one training session before a return to play.