THE 2020 season of football and netball will remain up in the air despite agreements by Cricket Victoria and AFL Victoria to reallocate priority use access to allow for a later finish to the footy season.
AFL Central Murray area manager Sheridan Harrop said there was still a lot of uncertainty for leagues and a decision would not be made before the next Central Rivers Board meeting on June 9.
"The biggest feedback we are receiving from clubs in both leagues is if there are no crowds they can't play," she said.
"Even with restrictions going up to 100 people, that number is pretty much absorbed by the players, volunteers and support stuff.
"For a season to be viable, we need crowd gatherings to be increased and we just don't know when a decision will be made on that.
"Right now, things continue to change quite quickly, so if gatherings were increased to a 500 person limit, we could have the option to go ahead with the season but we would still be quite restricted and we would need to put control measures in place"
When the shutdowns began in March, the league tentatively planned for an amended draw to commence in July.
With a reduced fixture, teams in the Central Murray league would play each other once while Golden Rivers teams would play each other once with a few additional games on top.
"While the decision from Cricket Victoria and AFL Victoria allows us to still look at that, there are many other factors that need to be taken into consideration," Harrop said.
"Clearances are still open at the moment and there is uncertainty on playing lists in Victoria until they close at the end of June.
"It's a national system and other states have been given a return to play timeline and Victoria doesn't have that yet, so players who planned a season here may make other arrangements.
"There's also scheduling issues to overcome, for example how to schedule football and netball games beside each other and still adhere to the social distancing and restricted numbers at gatherings.
"And because many of our players travel for games, we are cautious not to schedule games across multiple days.
"But we just can't make any firm decisions yet, because if the rules change, the door is open for the season to commence."
Harrop said if the season did not proceed, the leagues would not sit dormant, but rather focus on developing alternative competitions to keep clubs connected.
"There's a lot of ideas being discussed about what we will do including a social competition for juniors to encourage engagement, focussing on our player development through things like the academy program and also some fun activities suc...
