Northern Football League confirms plans for netball and junior football
The proposed starting dates for the Northern Football League’s junior football and senior netball seasons have been confirmed, with one club president saying getting kids back on the park will be as good as winning the flag.
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UPDATE: The Northern Football Netball League has released details for its 2020 netball and junior football seasons.
While the league confirmed it had cancelled its senior football season earlier this month, it had remained confident junior football and netball would be able to resume in late July.
The junior football season is slated to kick off on Sunday, July 12, while the summer netball competition will restart on Friday, July 24.
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The summer league was at the preliminary final stage when the season was halted due to COVID-19, a grand final will be held on July 31 and the winter competition will then begin on August 7.
Contact-free training has already resumed but contact drills will be permitted from June 22 for juniors and July 13 for adults.
While fixtures have not yet been finalised, junior football competitions are expected to be 12 games plus a shortened finals series.
It is believed the top-two teams would then play off in the grand final, rather than a traditional finals series.
The fixture for the winter netball season is also yet to be determined.
NFNL president Peter McDougall said policing netball protocols would be far easier than football.
“We asked every president if they would be supportive of netball going ahead if senior football didn’t go ahead and the majority said ‘absolutely’,” he said.
“The beauty of netball is we don’t rely on facilities that are shared with other sports, the majority of venues we use in summer and winter competitions anyway.
“We’ve got a bit more flexibility with netball and indoor venues mean we can control the hygiene protocols and play without spectators to begin with.”
Research Junior Football Club had players return to training for the first time on Thursday night.
Club president Paul Northey said just being back on the training track was a huge positive.
“It was brilliant to see them out on the ground,” he said.
“It’s taken quite a bit of preparation to get them to this point and we’re really mindful of our responsibilities.
“We’ve got 14 teams scheduled out over the course of the week and with no games it’s useful because we can train over the weekends.
“The kids are definitely enthusiastic and we’ve been in regular contact with parents, but if people are anxious for whatever reason, we totally respect that.
“In some ways, we think if the kids do get back to playing that will be as good as winning a premiership.”
Australia’s biggest junior football competition, the neighbouring Yarra Junior Football League, has confirmed a mid-July start and mid-October finish to its season.