THE current state of play for country sport in Victoria can be best summed up by what transpired in the Hampden Football Netball League on Saturday.
The Hampden league is down Warrnambool way, where, like Mildura, they have had no new cases of the coronavirus for a long time now.
But on Saturday, given the draconian restrictions being enforced by the Victorian Government, players were required to rock up to football grounds, get changed in their own cars, before going straight on to the field and play.
At the end of their match, they had to get straight back into their cars and head home.
All of this in front of no crowds.
Do those measures help make us safer? Or are they nonsense?
To their immense credit, the players agreed to do all this for no payment on the weekend, given clubs had no way to generate income without a crowd there to watch.
Fortunately, the Sunraysia Football and Netball League was able to find an alternative solution to keep its season up and running.
And that was simply to pack up the whole show and head across to New South Wales, where crowds are still allowed.
While it stands to reason that if the odds of Gol Gol getting a new virus case are one million to one, then Mildura’s is also one million to one, SFNL clubs had no choice but to relocate matches across the river.
It was a logistical nightmare and required a monumental effort by league officials, club presidents, volunteers and players.
But they pulled it off with the sort of “can do” spirit that country communities are built on.
Just like the good folk in the Hampden league, the SFNL community showed that where there is a will, there is a way.
SFNL executive officer Peter Walker said the level of support and co-operation between clubs was “incredible”.
“Obviously it was pretty full-on during the week, to get all the applications sorted and to figure out all the logistics, but it worked out well for us,” Walker said.
“We were fortunate that we had access to those venues (in NSW), as plenty of other leagues in Victoria obviously don’t have that.”
One of those venues was at Gol Gol, where the club, despite being from a different competition, “bent over backwards” to support the SFNL in hosting the Imperials v South Mildura twilight game on Saturday, Walker said.
“Paul Mensch from Gol Gol was great to work with and really helpful, he worked in with (Imperials president) Chris Sharman and obviously without that support it wouldn’t have happened.
“The same was Wentworth, who have opened their facilities again on Sunday and worked in to help Red Cliffs out as much as possible.
“I think, after last year, everyone understands what we missed out on and has appreciated getting footy and netball back on the park. On the weekend, we had to step outside our comfort zone to make it happen, but everyone is just going in the same direction and it is great to see.”
Walker said the SFNL was hopeful the Victorian Government would ease restrictions this week to allow clubs to return home.
“The conversations we’ve had with club presidents is that we need to get the crowd figure to 500 (excluding players and officials) before we can return to normal fixturing,” Walker said.
“The government is getting a lot of pressure now from all competitions across Victoria. Obviously the figure of 150, which includes participants, makes it very hard, so fingers crossed over the next week those restrictions are lifted.”
