The board of the McDonald's Ballarat FNL provides the following update on all competitions considering today’s announcement from the state government.
As of 11:59pm tonight (Monday), regional Victoria will return to the settings in place prior to the current lockdown. That is, community football and netball will be played with several protocols to be followed.
WESTERN BULLDOGS UNDER 9’s
The Western Bulldogs Under 9’s will continue to be placed on hold until such time as restrictions allow for suitable crowds to attend given a large number of players and their parent/carer concentrated at one venue.
BFLWomens
The McDelivery BFLW competition will resume from this weekend with games as fixtured to take place on Sunday 15th August 2021.
The variation to a full return is that games featuring metro-based clubs (Melton Centrals and Melton) will not proceed. The result of those games will see points shared and no percentage applied.
This will conclude the home & away season for BFLW and see finals commence as of the 21st August 2021 over three weeks.
BFNL JUNIORS
The McDonalds Ballarat FNL junior competitions will resume this weekend from the games as fixtured to take place on Sunday 15th August 2021. As with BFLW, this will conclude the home & away season for juniors in 2021.
The Ballarat Toyota BFNL Juniors Finals Series will commence from Saturday 21st August 2021, with the format of finals to be confirmed.
BFNL SENIORS
Whilst it is encouraging that regional-based competition can resume from this weekend, the Ballarat FNL is in the unique position of having senior clubs across both metro and regional communities. As a result, BFNL senior competition can only return when the settings for metro and regional communities are consistent.
Given the above, and the likelihood that many clubs will be impacted by the potential of metro-based players not being able to compete in a regional competition, the BFNL Seniors will not proceed this weekend.
The senior round 13 will be cancelled and no results given.
The league will await the next advice from the government to determine the status of the final home & away round on Saturday 21st August and the Carlton Draught Finals series due to commence from Saturday 28th August 2021.
The pathway ahead for the coming week is based upon advice that is known at this point in time.
The league is committed to ensuring the 2021 season can be concluded in the fairest manner for all clubs and supporters and appreciate the willingness of all stakeholders to be flexible as we work through the current protocols.
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