Group Nine's lockdown waiting game

While Kangaroos were able to take an important win over Brothers and Albury played their first game for a month in their loss to Tumut on Saturday, both games scheduled for Sunday have been declared COVID draws.

It would have been the first time in a month that all eight first grade sides were in action following the Thunder's border bubble issues before Saturday's dramatic twist.

With Young splitting the points with Gundagai and Southcity's clash with Temora also credited as a draw, there has been no change in the order of the top five.

However with Kangaroos having the bye this week the Dragons will need to not only get on the field on Sunday but then down Tumut to play finals for the first time in over a decade.

The Blues will finish the season as minor premiers.

With all three Group Nine first grade fixtures on Sunday, chairman Andrew Hinchcliffe did not rule out a return to action next week should the snap seven-day lockdown not be extended.

"I would imagine we will get a heads up during the week to where that is up to and that's why it is important we communicate with clubs as playing on Sunday might be an option for us," Hinchcliffe said.

"It's still too early to know."

READ MORE

In the meantime he's implored all involved to follow the government's health advice.

"We will wait until the middle of the week to come up with some options for what might happen if lockdown is extended," Hinchcliffe said.

"Immediately we have to comply with the health advice and see how long that might go for.

"Next week is easy but it gets a little bit harder from there."

Group Nine had already put a number of contingencies in place if the season needed to be extended past the September 19 grand final date.

Hinchcliffe was hoping it would not be necessary before Saturday's snap lockdown changed everything.

Equex Centre has been booked past the original date, but how far Group Nine would be willing to wait in order for a finals series to be played will be one of the discussion points on Wednesday night.

"We've interimly booked McDonalds Park for an extra couple of weeks and will have to establish an end point of how far we could push back if we need to," Hinchcliffe said.

"In time we will look at all those options and that could be one of them."

Group Nine's preference is to retain their top five finals structure.

Hinchcliffe is also weighing up whether to host a meeting between all clubs to gauge their response to what potentially lies ahead.

"There might be ideas that come from clubland that might be worth exploring," he said.

"We will take any advice as we try to navigate our way through this but we will be governed by what NSW Rugby League give as guidance anyway."