The Bendigo Amateur Soccer League is preparing for junior and senior competitions to resume this weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While BASL needs to wait for the Football Federation Victoria return to play guidelines to be released before giving clubs the green light to play, league boss Aaron Shooter was confident games would go ahead.
"Assuming the return to play guidelines are similar to what we had before the previous lockdown we should be fine to return to play this weekend,'' Shooter said.
"My understanding is we'll go with the games that were originally scheduled for this weekend and then we'll look at the remainder of the schedule.
"We have a committee meeting on Wednesday night where we'll check where everyone is at and then we'll look at how we catch up on the rest of the season.
"It's not as if we're starting from scratch...we've done a lot of work on differnt scenarios, but every time there's a lockdown the goal posts get shifted.
"We just need to get everyone on the same page."
The matches scheduled for the BASL division one championship this weekend are Epsom at home to Eaglehawk, Strathdale hosting Spring Gully United, Tatura travels to Golden City and the Shepparton derby between Shepparton United and Shepparton South.
In the womeen's championship, Swan Hill is away to Epsom, La Trobe University hosts Moama-Echuca, Strathdale takes on Spring Gully United, Golden City is at home to Tatura, Eaglehawk plays Strathfieldsaye Colts United and the two Shepparton-based clubs meet.
The finals structure for the division one and women's competitions was expected to be a top eight system, with all matches knockout.
Shooter said the number of teams to qualify for finals and the length of the finals series would be determined by how many matches the league can make-up over the next month.
Clubs will be asked to vote on playing midweek matches at stages over the next month in a bid to catch-up lost matches before the finals.
Much to the delight of aspiring soccer stars and their parents, junior matches will resume this Saturday.
"Most of the juniors will remain unaffected,'' Shooter said.
"Most of the junior age groups have uneven draws where each team doesn't play everyone twice.
"The need to play catch-up games in those age groups is not as high.
"We're keen to wrap up the season and get the juniors into some sort of finals series."
Shooter said seeing junior age groups back on the pitch this weekend was an exciting prospect for everyone involved with the league.
"The more opportunity we can get the kids back out playing the more likely they're not going to opt out,'' he said.
"It's really exciting to get games up and going again, it's just more of a scramble than what we thought.
"All the clubs understand what needs to happen, but we still have some work to be done to make sure parents and spectators know their requirements."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark bendigoadvertiser.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter @BgoAddy
- Follow us on Instagram @bendigoadvertiser
- Join us on Facebook
- Follow us on Google News