It's getting close now - BFNL launches 2021 return season | PHOTOS

THE keenly-anticipated return of the Bendigo Football-Netball League has moved a step closer with the launch of the 2021 season on Friday.

Like all Victorian community leagues, the coronavirus pandemic forced the BFNL into hiatus in 2020, apart from a brief under-age football-netball competition mid-year before it too was abandoned due to COVID-19 restrictions.

However, the BFNL return is now imminent, with Strathfieldsaye and Sandhurst set to re-start the league next week with a stand-alone Good Friday season-opener at Tannery Lane.

"It's really exciting now being a week away from the start... not having football and netball for a whole season, everyone is just really keen to be able to get back into it," BFNL chair Carol McKinstry said on Friday.

When the action gets under way next Friday it will have been 559 days since the BFNL's last day of full competition - the 2019 grand final when Strathfieldsaye won the senior premiership and Sandhurst the A Grade netball flag.

"There's no doubt there has been some worrying times on a few different levels," McKinstry said of the challenge the league faced last year.

"Last year financially we were wanting to make sure we'd still be in existence, so we had to do a lot of work to be fiscally responsible.

"We tried to get the junior football and netball up and running last year and worked really hard with the presidents on that, but circumstances conspired against that.

"This year we just want to get the competition and our clubs back up and running.

"Probably our biggest concern at this stage is the volunteer numbers at clubs as the No.1 risk.

"We really need our communities and volunteers to get behind the clubs.

"For instance, there's a shortage of trainers, which isn't just our league, it's across the board.

"The clubs worked pretty hard last year in keeping their players engaged. Probably the ones not as engaged were the people on the peripheral and I know our clubs are working really hard to get that aspect back.

"Our mantra for the year is participation, both on and off the field."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: