Reigning premiers North Wagga will resume training next week but still have plenty of questions about what it will take to get to a return to competition.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Saints president Brendan Nilsen says the club has put plans in place to ensure their footballers and netballers can take the first step back towards sport.
But it's clear a commitment to playing will be a separate decision altogether.
"We've got a community side as well as the footy club side of it," Nilsen said.
"We're trying to get the seniors at least going because there are a lot of blokes that are keen and a lot of girls that are keen just to do something, not knowing the outcome."
North Wagga will introduce and follow the strict protocols required.
"Our guys will start one night a week next week. The boys will start on Tuesday and the girls start on Thursday," Nilsen said.
"Breaking down the requirements, we'll have five (football) and four (netball) groups that start at staggered 15-minute intervals. I've got a team leader for each group.
"They'll have a third of the oval each. The requirement is they can't be congregating so they come to training, go to the sanitising station then out on to the oval and start, and the second group will come, sanitise, go to the middle...
"They have to sanitise themselves before, during, and after. And they have to sanitise the netballs and footballs."
The restrictions in place to return to training - including clubs appointing Covid-19 safety officers and keeping logs of attendances - are focussing the minds of club officials on what it will take to get a season up and going in 2020.
Nilsen said the Saints have discussed it as a committee but are keen to hear more from AFL NSW-ACT at an online meeting on Friday night before confirming their position.
There are worries at clubs about the financial impacts with many unsure of their potential for income. There's also concern about the idea of asking volunteers to enforce rules or public health orders.
Almost all clubs have been adamant throughout that a return to play with strictly capped crowds (eg 100) won't be worthwhile or feasible.
Technically, 500 people are allowed at outdoor sports venues under the current public health order but only with all the other rules of social distancing, including not gathering in groups of 10 and not using change rooms.
Of course, no contact training is even allowed at present, so a return to competition is literally impossible until restrictions ease much further.
But it's the opening up of society and the economy that does give hope to those keen to get back to football and netball.
The public regulations for early June already look much brighter than the rules were in April and May.
So the hope is, barring a new outbreak of cases and community transmission, the rules could allow for a whole new world by July, perhaps even one that looked a bit like the old world.