Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong coach Christin Macri would be prepared to see a season extend into November in a bid to get football in this year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Macri revealed a number of his Lions players were 'shattered' when the season was postponed, until May 31 at least, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Lions, who have made consecutive Riverina League finals appearances, had endured a good pre-season and enjoyed a big trial game win over Marrar just days before the 2020 season was suspended.
Macri believes it is a no brainer to extend the season past the traditional September finish in a bid to get a competition in.
"Absolutely. (October) is only a month after what we'd normally do. We're usually middle to late September for finals so I've got no doubt there would be plenty of people happy to play in October, and probably November, to be honest," Macri said.
"Shattered is a big word I know, but a lot of my guys were shattered that it was pulled from them totally.
"We were, like everyone, at that point where we were ready to play. We'd done our pre-season and we were getting into some practice games, then it was just the unknowns really sort of tossed around.
"So from their point of view, and everyone's point of view, if we can get some footy in, it's better to play two months or 10 weeks of footy, with a couple of finals, rather than having to wait until April next year and start again."
Macri, a premiership winning coach at GGGM, agrees with EWK counterpart Matt Hard in that the season will need to be a minimum of one full round of games.
"I think you've got to be able to play everyone once," he said.
"You couldn't have a five or six week season, for example. It won't be enough. It's some footy but it won't be enough.
"As long as we can get everyone play each other once, and then some finals, that would be enough.I couldn't see it being a full season so bring it back to playing everyone once and roll from there."
Macri, a former Western Bulldogs player, said it has been tough going as a coach. They, like players and everyone else, don't have the answers as to when the season will resume.
"As I've said to a few of my boys in the past week, once the AFL gets going, we'll have a better idea of what's happening in general," he said.
"Whether they've got crowds or not, whether they're going to run without crowds initially. If they're still running without crowds then we won't be starting. But if they get going and they've got crowds then there is no reason why we can't. It will obviously be cleared nationally to get together then.
"At the moment, it's the big unknown. I'd love to get a season in, I'd love to get half a season in, I know there's lot of other issues in regards to access to grounds and all that sort of stuff later on in the year. I think for everyone's sake we'd like to play some instead of none, but depending when that starts and how late we can go is the only thing."
READ MORE