Wagga police reprimand pubs and sports clubs for flouting COVID rules

The stern warning came from the Riverina Police District's commander, Superintendent Bob Noble, who said too many sporting clubs were violating COVID restrictions during post-match celebrations at the pub.

"We're investigating a number of, I think, fairly serious breaches across the district now where sporting clubs have got into a pub, played up, think the rules don't apply to them," Superintendent Noble said.

"They need to wake up because when they catch it [COVID-19] and they take it home and give it to their old mum or their old grandmother it's going to be on them, so they need to get their head around it."

Superintendent Noble hinted that several pubs could expect to cop fines in the coming week, saying officers had gathered evidence of yet more non-compliance.

He said in the past few weeks alone police had handed out more than $50,000 worth of fines to pubs and other licensed premises in the region.

Wagga Kangaroos club coach Hayden Ashcroft said his team had stopped meeting at the pub altogether in a bid to curb the coronavirus risk.

"We're looking at setting a great example and doing everything right on our end so we can continue playing," Mr Ashcroft said.

"Restrictions change weekly, so I feel as new restrictions are brought into place everyone does what's required, especially in our club."

Southern Rugby Inland Union competitions manager Jack Heffernan insisted all their clubs had been well-behaved, both on the field and in the pub.

"All our clubs are aware of what the guidelines are around community sport, and they understand if those guidelines aren't followed community sport might come to a halt as some stage," Mr Heffernan said.

"Hopefully everyone can enjoy themselves appropriately, post-game and during the game."

Southern Sports Academy chief executive Mark Calverley said parents had set a good example, saying there was no issues with non-compliance so far.

"At the moment we're lucky to be able to be working within sport and keeping our programs going, and the last thing we want is to compromise those and risk being put into further restrictions again," Mr Calverley said.

"The more we follow the guidelines now and do the right thing, the more restrictions will ease and hopefully we can get back to some sort of normalcy with our pathways programs."

Australian Hotels Association Wagga president David Barnhill said local pubs were doing their best to follow the rules under some tough conditions.

He said patrons were "getting better educated" around the social distancing rules, but it was still a challenge at times to monitor everyone.

"It is hard, it means we have more staff on the floor under tough trading conditions, so it's tough across the floor but we're doing our best," he said.

"We're getting constant updates, and we're sharing that with our liquor accord members and keeping on our toes."