Council to give final clearance for football, netball training

TRAINING at football and netball clubs will not resume until council clearance is given.

Netballers were allowed to return to the court yesterday, and footballers have been given the go ahead for Monday. But any organised training requires the green light by the City of Greater Geelong.

In an email sent to clubs, officials were told they were required to complete a document developed by Sport & Recreation Victoria (SRV) before the council provides return-toplay approval.

Questions in the SRV document include:

WHAT hygiene measures are in place?

HOW will cleaning be maintained to minimise transmission of coronavirus?

WHAT protocols are implemented to ensure social distancing measures are met? HOW will venue entry and exit points be monitored? WHAT injury prevention measures are in place for highrisk activities?

Geelong West Giants chair Sarah Naylor hoped training for their GFL and GDFL teams can resume on Monday.

“We’ve got Bakers Oval and West Oval scheduled teams in for pretty much all week,” Naylor said.

“We’ve got the senior women’s (football) wanting to start up on Monday … they’ll be the first ones we try and get back first.”

Bell Park netball president Dean Williams said while he was concerned by the uncertainty surrounding the chances of a season getting under way, community safety and welfare were paramount.

“We are waiting on AFL Barwon and Netball Victoria to provide all clubs with further direction in regards to if we’re going to start to play again,” Williams said.

“Some of our decision-making needs to factor in the availability of coaches, players and volunteers to support and enact the many processes that need to be actioned prior to and when any training resumes.

“We’re probably at this current point in time, thinking that we would prefer, based on the eased restrictions, to encourage girls to train either by themselves, as they have done for the last six to seven weeks, or with a group of friends focusing on general fitness.

“There is a keenness within the group to get back to playing, however this needs to be done in a controlled and systematic manner.”

Netball Victoria has announced that training can recommence with groups of up to 10, while AFL Victoria has allowed two groups of no more than 10 on an oval at any one time.

Geelong West netball general manager Sharon Gillett said the health and safety of members and the viability of clubs needed to be the priority.

She said the prospect of training was “exciting and complicated”.

“We need to ensure all health and safety measures are considered first and then consider all resource implications on clubs,” Gillett said.

“Obviously if training is at night, clubs will need to use lights and where do we sit at the moment in terms of no club memberships (and) revenue for the clubs to be able to pay their bills?

“We need to just be very measured in our responses and go very gently to ensure the longevity of clubs as well as the leagues.”