Regional Victorian juniors have been given the green light to return to community sports.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As of 11.59pm on Wednesday night junior outdoor contact sports can resume, in addition to non-contact sports for adults, under strict gathering and density limits.
Sports Focus business manager Stuart Craig was pleased with the announcement, but also concerned by some of the finer details.
"It poses one interesting question for children out in rural areas that play in competitions where there are no age limits," Craig said.
"They will still miss out as they might primarily compete against adults, it won't be as bad around Bendigo but out in the more rural areas it could be an issue."
However, he was pleased that we had "taken a step in the right direction".
"No one wants community sport back more than we do at Sports Focus," Craig said.
"However, it needs to be in a safe way as the last thing we want is to go back to where we were a few months ago.
"Let's be wise on what we've learnt and ensure we do everything correct this time."
Regional Sport Victoria also voiced concern that regional Victoria's return to adult contact community sport could be hindered by metropolitan COVID-19 case numbers.
RSV wants to see "common sense applied" as during the final stage of the state government's roadmap to reopening regional areas will be reliant on metropolitan Melbourne cases being at zero for two weeks.
Craig, who is also a director at RSV, said regional Victorians should't be impacted by metropolitan case numbers.
"Clearly the government has had an agenda to separate regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne justified by numbers of new cases within respected settings," he said.
"What's happened now is that there has been a determination that for regional Victorian adults to return to sport (organised contact activities) there needs to have been zero cases from unknown sources across the state for two weeks.
"Our question and concern is why at the last hurdle is there potentially a barrier which penalises regional Victoria for something that's happening in Melbourne.
"We're now advocating to the government to have regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne separated."
RSV chair Felicity Williams said they appreciated the challenges associated with the pandemic, but wanted common sense applied.
"This means no AFL, no netball, no basketball... basically any sport that involves physical contact will be off limits for adults living in regional Victoria," Williams said.
Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.
