Sunraysia soccer clubs get ready to roll

SUNRAYSIA soccer clubs will be cleared to return to training from Monday in preparation for scheduled return to play next month.

Football Federation Victoria allowed clubs to return to training this week in groups of 10 and following strict hygiene and social distancing protocols, however Football Federation Sunraysia (FFS) and the clubs met on Monday night and decided clubs will wait until next week.

FFS general manager Susan Watts is putting together signage packages for clubs to install to help their members follow the guidelines for managing a return to training amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s really going to be down to the individual to do the right thing and follow the rules basically,” she said.

FFS is also aiming to return to competition from June 28, with that being Football Victoria’s target for resumption of play.

Watts said how the season would look, either a shortened 10 week league season, the full 15 weeks or the extra competitions such as the knockout cup and finals series, depends on what the clubs want.

“If we do 10 weeks we would finish around the time we normally finish,” Watts said.

“If we do the full 15 week season of S-League, just playing S-League, that takes us through to November 1.”

Watts called on clubs to start training to get an idea of what the fixture would need to look like.

“Clubs will need to start training, so we can work out how many teams we’ve got and how many players we’ve got,” she said.

“And how we are going to work with that competition.”

At the end of the day Watts said it would be on the clubs and players to ensure they do the right thing to ensure the season could go ahead.

“The responsibility is on the individual to do the right thing and if they do the right thing we will be able to play our season,” Watts said.

“If the individuals and the clubs don’t do the right thing our season may be abruptly stopped.”

Teams face tight race to be in top shape

SUNRAYSIA soccer clubs will remain vigilant as they prepare to return to training as early as next week.

Football Sunraysia, whose season has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, announced this week clubs could train from Monday under the guidelines set out by Football Victoria.

This means Sunraysia’s six clubs, Three Colours, Irymple Knights, Mildura City, Nichols Point, Mildura United and Northern Suns, will be able to train in groups of 10 with permission from Mildura Rural City Council, adhering to social distancing and hygiene protocols.

Mildura City president Vince Pollifrone said his players were champing at the bit to return to the pitch and believed with a joint, careful approach the guidelines could be followed. 

“It will be manageable, everybody just has to be vigilant in what they do and how they do things,” he said.

“I think all the boys are pretty keen to get back and have a bit of a run.

“If they say ‘yeah you can’ then why not?”

Nichols Point president Roxanne Jones said her club would take the utmost care before returning to training.

“We need to put some things in place to make sure we are compliant and everybody is safe, because there are some fairly heavy guidelines on what we can and can’t do,” she said.

“We can’t see that we’ll get training up and running before the end of the month, just because we’ve got to go through the whole cleaning process, make sure we’ve got it all documented, signage, all the rest of it that goes with it and also getting the information out to players too.”

Three Colours president Lucy Fotia said her club was to decide this week whether to resume next week or wait a week to get the correct protocols in place.

“It depends on when we can get everything sorted,” she said.

“I think we will be (OK), I just think we will have to spread the training nights out or reduce the hours from an hour to half an hour.

“Everyone is keen, as long as you get the players there will be a season, it depends on them I guess.”