LVFNL - Finals snapshot as premiership race down to five teams

THE Loddon Valley Football-Netball League will likely have to pivot from its September 11 grand final date with its finals timeline having now been altered following another Victorian regional lockdown.

The LVFNL finals were to start on the weekend - albeit without crowds - at Serpentine on Saturday (qualifying) and Marong on Sunday (elimination).

The league has remained committed throughout the season to keeping its grand final date of September 11, which hasn't altered from the original fixture released in December last year.

However, with the regional lockdown announced on Saturday to remain in place until at least 11.59pm on Thursday, September 2, it means the league has lost its first two weekends of planned finals dates.

The LVFNL board will meet early in the week to discuss the ramifications of the latest lockdown on the season moving forward.

With another two weekends of play lost - on top of there having been five abandoned home and away rounds - the league will likely now look at pushing its grand final date back from September 11 to the weekend of September 18-19.

Both the Heathcote District and North Central leagues currently have their grand finals set for September 18 following a re-working of their season dates.

The Loddon Valley grand final is scheduled to be hosted by Maiden Gully YCW this year as part of the league's rotation policy of its showcase day.

"As a board we'll get together early in the week and look at what we will do moving forward," LVFNL chairman Simon Tuohey said on Saturday.

"It's obviously a very difficult situation to work through as it has been all season.

"As far as the grand final, while we've retained the September 11 date we've always still had the following weekend up our sleeve if required.

"But we don't want to go any date beyond that September 18-19 weekend.

"The AFL grand final is the following weekend and clubs just want to get the season over and done with."

With the weekend of September 18-19 determined to be the league's cut-off point, at best it now gives the LVFNL just three weekends in which to complete its season given the earliest possible return date would be Saturday, September 4 should the lockdown end on time.

The maximum three-week window now means a re-working of the finals system would be required given its top-five structure is based on a four-week format.

The loss of a week may mean the league needs to look at its finals structure becoming a top-four, which would provide alternative options should even just two weeks be possible, such as 1^st v 4^th and 2^nd v 3^rd in a pair of semi-finals on the weekend of September 11-12, with the two winners to go through to the grand final the following week.

"We're still committed to getting the season finished, but it's going to be well and truly compromised," Tuohey said.

"We were just hoping for a start to get through this weekend to get down to four teams, which would have made planning a lot easier.

"Clearly, there's a lot we've got to work through and discuss early in the week so we can get some plans in place on how to best move forward from this latest setback."

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