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ONCE it has the all-clear from Netball Victoria to launch, the Golden City Netball Association is likely to give its clubs a two-week window to prepare for the return of competition this year.
While return dates for junior (June 22) and senior (July 20) sport competition were announced by the state government last Sunday, the netball community is now awaiting advice from Netball Victoria.
"Netball Victoria is delighted with the Victoria state government announcement of a road map for the return of community sport in Victoria," Netball Victoria said in a statement on Monday.
"We have seen netballers return to training with cautious excitement, and know the delight that a return to competition will bring our community.
"We are processing the detail in these announcements and seeking further clarification before we can provide further advice to our netball community. We will provide the updated Return to Community Netball guidelines as soon as we can."
GCNA secretary Maree Dixon says once the Netball Victoria return-to-play guidelines are announced, the association will move quickly to get its season up and running, hopefully, in early July.
"Hopefully, we can get going in the first or second week of July. We're still waiting on the Netball Victoria guidelines and once we get that we need to give the clubs some time to get ready in terms of training so the kids aren't just going straight into playing," Dixon said on Wednesday.
"Depending on when we started, we'd like to get at least a 12 or 13 week season in that could go into October."
The GCNA, which is based at the Bendigo Stadium courts in West Bendigo, has age groups that start with the beginner NetSetGO program through to open, which can't start competition until at least July 20.
"It has obviously been tough for the players not being able to play, but after we give our teams a couple of weeks to prepare once we get the guidelines, we'll be raring to go," Dixon said.
Logistically, the GCNA expects to be only running half its courts at any one time to reduce the number of games and therefore number of people gathering.
Meanwhile, the Bendigo Strathdale Netball Association is also awaiting the Netball Victoria re-start guidelines.
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