Country football: Where Victorian leagues stand on the future of their 2021 seasons

Ongoing coronavirus restrictions in Victoria have forced country footy leagues to either cancel or modify their finals plans. Here’s where each league’s season stands.

The Goulburn Valley Football League season is now over, as coronavirus cases in Shepparton causes headaches.

Country football leagues are scrambling to decide on a modified finals fixture, or make the call on their seasons as uncertainty around lockdown pushes deep into September.

While some Victorian leagues are waiting for news on whether restrictions will ease in time for them to play the remainder of their seasons, others have canned their 2021 seasons and named minor premiers instead.

Leagues near the NSW border and Shepparton, concerned with the increasing case numbers and border restrictions, made the decision to cancel their seasons early, including Central Murray, Upper Murray, Murray, Picola and District, Goulburn Valley, Golden Rivers, Millewa, Murray, Picola and District, Sunraysia and Tallangatta and District.

Many of the clubs around Shepparton cited having a large proportion of their members, including league operations manager Jo Spencer, in isolation last week as a major factor in the decision.

“This is not a decision we have made lightly. The inability of metro-based players to travel, as well as NSW restrictions placed significant strain on clubs”, GVL board chairman David Roff said.

”Even if restrictions were to ease, we could quickly find ourselves back in another snap lockdown which could see finals further impacted. Further to that, we are still a long way off spectators being allowed back at games. We ultimately had to make the call-in order to provide clarity to everyone at all of our clubs,” Mr Roff said.

It’s a different story around Gippsland, where three leagues are holding out hope that a finals series of some sort will be viable.

But with many clubs relying on players from metro Melbourne, and with only regional Victoria expected to get out of lockdown in time, there are concerns.

“All three grades (East Gippsland, Gippsland and Mid Gippsland) are hoping to go ahead if able to complete finals series by the first weekend in October,” Gippsland regional manager Nicholas Fogarty said.

“At this stage whether metro players can play or not is not part of the league decision making”.