By Benjamin Millar
Players and fans have enjoyed a welcome return to football and netball after a four-week hiatus forced by the snap COVID-19 lockdown.
Easing of restrictions allowing senior football and netball to return to competition on the weekend saw bumper crowds turn out to enjoy some hard-fought match-ups.
Crowd limits were last week increased in regional Victoria to a maximum of 1000 people, the last requirement to allow competition to return.
The weekend saw the full Ballarat FNL competitions back in action across BFNL seniors, BFNL juniors and BFLW.
Western Bulldogs under-9s also resumed on Friday night after a short break.
The lockdown has forced two BFNL senior competition rounds to be abandoned and a reshuffle of the fixture to even out the remainder of the season.
Rounds 1 to 6 of senior football and netball fixture will stand, round seven was moved to June 19 and round eight will be played on June 26.
Round 11 will be played on July 3, as per the fixtured date, with rounds nine and 10 to be played on July 10 and 17.
Rounds 12 and 13 from the original fixture will be the two rounds that are abandoned, then rounds 14 to 18 will be played as listed on the fixtured dates.
A league spokesman said the priority has been to ensure all clubs play each other at least once, which is the minimum requirement to ensure a premiership season.
This will be achieved following completion of round 10, scheduled for July 17.
“The revised game schedule ensures fixture integrity through all clubs having seven home and away games, along with two byes,” the spokesman said.
“Looking forward, we wait for further announcements from the government that will allow crowds for metro-based BFNL clubs scheduled to host games in round eight.”
