The Mininera and District Football League has decided to keep the bye over the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend instead of using it to play previously cancelled fixtures.
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Acting Premier James Merlino announced on Wednesday, June 9, that community sport would be allowed to resume in regional Victoria, with it having been prohibited since the circuit breaker lockdown was introduced on Friday, May 28.
However, the restrictions coming into place at 11.59pm on Thursday, June 10, still dictate that community sport be "limited to minimum number of people required to participate in and facilitate the activity".
The Mininera and District Football League board held a meeting on Tuesday, June 8, to resolve what it would do if football were allowed to return.
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Board member Neil Robertson said the circumstances under which the matches would have to be played on the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend would create unreasonable difficulties for clubs.
"We're still having the bye in the middle of the school holidays (Saturday, July 3) and not playing this weekend," he said.
"Nobody was really keen to play on the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend because people had already organised stuff for that weekend, and there's a little bit of that for the school holiday's round as well.
"It costs you money to run your football team for the day, but if you've got no canteen, bar, or patrons, then you're making a loss.
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"We're banking on restrictions having eased by June 19, which is our next round. If we're too restricted with the number of people who can attend then we'll have to put it to the clubs to see whether they want to go ahead or not."
Robertson said if restrictions remained in place for this round, the league would explore the possibility of playing during the school holidays instead of having a bye.
An uninterrupted season would have involved the 12 teams all play each other at least once before playing five teams for a second time during rounds 12-16.
The fixtures will now be altered, so the cancelled matches from Saturday, May 29 and Saturday, June 5, will be played during the two rounds of the home and away season.
This means, barring further cancellations, that each team will still play everyone once, despite the season containing two fewer rounds.
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