Riddell District coaches back league’s decision to cancel season
The Riddell District was forced to cancel its season as parts of Melbourne’s north-west were plunged back into lockdown and league coaches have praised the league’s handling of the situation.
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Riddell District Football League coaches and players have been caught up in Melbourne’s suburban lockdown.
The strict protocols introduced by the Victorian government this week all but ended any hope of the senior football and netball season going ahead.
After holding out for three months, the RDFNL confirmed its decision to abandon the 2020 campaign on Tuesday night.
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Woodend-Hesket coach Ben Tankard lives in one of the affected postcodes, along with several of his players.
“I’m in lockdown myself and we have about 10 guys travelling from Melbourne,” he said.
“I agree with the league’s decision 100 per cent, the last seven days have changed things massively.
“I definitely praise the league, they set dates and stuck to them to give us every chance (to play) and that’s all you can ask for.”
Sunbury club Rupertswood was hard hit, unable to train at its home ground at Salesian College in case of an outbreak.
“We definitely have players in (hotspot suburbs) who travel up,” coach Nick Ash said.
“At the end of the day, with the restrictions in place and the spike in cases we’ve had, it just made it too hard.
“We’d been working on finding a ground … the last thing the school needed was if we came in and worse case scenario we had a (COVID-19) case and the school had to shutdown.
“It would have been nice to have a couple of sessions in to see the boys but hopefully when restrictions ease we can catch up as a group.”
Macedon coach Al Meldrum praised the RDFL for holding on while others folded but agreed the spike in COVID-19 cases made it impossible to proceed.
“It was the right decision, 100 per cent, from my point of view I think the league did a good job in the situation,” he said.
“The communication was really good but after the events of the last seven days it became inevitable. It’s disappointing but we’d all prepared for it.
“When you look at clubs, particularly around Sunbury, it was too much of a challenge.”
Diggers Rest counterpart Jamie Lobb agreed and said his club would now look to support its sponsors.
“I think the league did the right thing in holding off as long as they could, I think a few leagues went too early,” Lobb said.
“We’d been back training for four weeks and things were looking good but over the last 10 days things changed pretty quickly.
“Once things ease up down the track, we’ll try and run some functions and we’ll turn the tables and look to support our sponsors while we’re not playing.”