It will be the Yass Redback Juniors who will be the most enthusiastic about a return to training and play in the coming weeks. Ingrid Davis is the Yass Football Club media officer and said; “We are still awaiting confirmation of play resuming from July 18/19 this year.” But things have been tough for the Redbacks since they had 3 men’s teams and 2 women’s in 2019.

“It looks as though we will drop back to 2 men’s teams and possibly just one women’s squad for 2020” Davis added. “But our juniors are absolutely thrilled to be back on the field.” One of the big problems has been the differences between jurisdictions’ different interpretation of the Covid-19 rules. At the time of writing these rules have changed again in both the ACT and NSW.

At present the training players are allowed only ten players on a half field, the other 10 on the other half. However full contact training will be allowed in NSW from July 1st 2020.

“We have over 220 junior and senior players in the Club and it has put a big strain on our resources, especially with the redevelopment of Walker Park” Ingrid Davis commented.

There will be problems complying with the corona virus compliance regulations for volunteers. Some of these are onerous, social distancing rules will be one restriction which will take some handling, but canteens will be able to open and again the social distancing will become a headache! In addition, sponsors have abandoned playing clubs, robbing them of operating cash.

“It has been a matter of individual choices for all our players as to play or not and sadly a good number have chosen to withdraw in 2020” Davis lamented. “We are only going to have half a season and no finals series, it is cold now to start training and I am not surprised at the lack of interest, even so the game would have been good for physical and mental health of players.”

In the meantime, the “NSW Sport Recovery Program” will make available $27.3 million for the benefit of community sport across the state. There may be available a $1000.00 grant to over 12000 sporting clubs across NSW. The Office of Sport has indicated that these grants could be available by the end of June, to some clubs this grant would amount to a drop in the ocean.