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NINE of the Bendigo Football-Netball League's 10 clubs are expected to field teams in the competition's looming junior season.
The only club that has indicated it won't be participating in either of the BFNL's under-18 football and 17-under netball seasons is Gisborne due to its close proximity to the locked down Melbourne.
"At this point in time Gisborne is the only club that won't be participating similar to its reasoning a couple of weeks ago in terms of where they sit in relation to the hot spots down south," BFNL manager Cameron Tomlins said on Tuesday.
"It was a hard decision for Gisborne to have to make, but again, it was the right decision to make. Apart from Gisborne, we've had indications from the other nine clubs that they'll be entering football and netball teams."
The BFNL has earmarked July 25 as its start date for the junior football and netball competitions.
The withdrawal of Gisborne would mean each team would play eight games and have one bye each, while there will be a shortened finals series under a format still to be confirmed.
"What we needed to first get confirmation of was the clubs that will be entering and then we can begin to plot how the season will work," Tomlins said.
"We're due to meet with our clubs on Wednesday night where we'll gauge how they envisage the season playing out and utilisation of facilities.
Clubs will have the capacity to attract players through AFL Victoria's COVID permit, which was introduced for players from cancelled leagues to transfer to a competition that is playing and then return to their club next year.
But the league doesn't want to see COVID permit players take away games from existing players at clubs.
"We haven't got any specific guidelines, but we are working with clubs around the COVID type 2 permit. The purpose though of our competition this year is to provide an opportunity for participation for those players who were committed to our league and clubs pre-COVID," Tomlins said.
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"We'll work with our clubs if there's any teams that need some assistance to meet the minimum requirements of putting a team in this year.
"So we're open to that, but we really want to limit the movement into the league and offer the opportunity to the players who were committed at the beginning of 2020.
"Plus we also have the responsibility that we don't want to be accepting permits from across the state given the situation regarding (COVID-19) community transmission.
"Considering the safety and wellbeing of our clubs and the greater Bendigo region, we don't think we need to be accepting players on permits left, right and centre, and that's to also protect the integrity of our competition as well."
Meanwhile, the Bendigo Junior Football League is set to kick off its 10-week season this weekend.
50 MOST DOMINANT FLAG SEASONS IN BFL, HDFL, LVFL SINCE 1990
No.44 & 43 - Eaglehawk 2008, Elmore 2007
NO. 46 & 45 - Mount Pleasant 1990, Newbridge 2018
NO. 48 & 47 - Gisborne 2006, Calivil United 1990
NO. 50 & 49 - Calivil United 2003, Eaglehawk 2018
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