AFL Riverina announced a number of changes to the four competitions on Monday, all surrounding the finals series amid the statewide COVID-19 lockdown.

The Riverina and Farrer League senior competitions, as well as Wagga and District and South West juniors, will revert to a two-week top four finals structure.

The junior competitions will begin this weekend, should lockdown be lifted, with seniors a week later.

The decision means the Farrer and Riverina League grand finals will be played on the one weekend, pencilled in for September 11 and 12 at the moment.

AFL Riverina surprised many however by explaining that the competitions will be called off, and no premierships awarded, should the grand finals not be able to be played by the reserve weekend of September 18-19.

The decision drew immediate criticism from some clubs, but Irons explained that a desire not to clash with the AFL grand final on September 25 was part of the reasoning.

"We have always wrapped our season up by the third weekend of September. Last year we only extended our junior competitions to the last weekend of September and that was because we did not clash with the AFL grand final," Irons said.

"The advice that we have received is that the AFL grand final will be on the last Saturday of September and that is not something we have ever wanted to clash with.

"It is also a matter of how long do you extend for, taking into consideration the time that players of all grades may have had off and their welfare of returning to contact sport.

"We've got to make a decision for all clubs and across four competitions to get a resolution. It was the board's view that we need to make a decision now and set a timeline instead of creating further uncertainty."

Irons said the AFL Riverina board was simply trying to make the best of a bad situation.

"We have been extremely fortunate to get as much football and netball this year as we have and its been a long year and a lot of hard work for players, administrators, volunteers and umpires," Irons said.

"We've already had to make some tough decisions in cancelling some games and changing finals format which we know is disappointing for many but we want to set a clear plan.

"At the end of the day, we have set our plan but we still have to wait for the lockdown to be lifted and for any details of changes to restrictions. The Deputy Premier stated last week that a positive case in an LGA or a neighbouring LGA or detection in the sewage surveillance would lead to a lockdown so we are by no means guaranteed of getting a start and could quite easily face an interruption."

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Under the proposed new finals format, first takes on fourth, while second meets third. The two winners will then meet in a grand final.

Riverina League will hold their finals series at Narrandera Sportsground, while Wagga's Robertson Oval will play host to the Farrer League.

AFL Riverina also informed clubs that the current catering, bar, gate and netball rosters would be postponed until 2022.

Riverina League clubs who lost a home game in rounds 17 and 18, due to the lockdown, will go into a draw to be allocated catering in a final or the grand final bar.

For the Farrer League, catering and bar rights are open for tender.

For both leagues' gate and netball duty, all clubs will be put into a draw.

RIVERINA LEAGUE

Saturday September 4: Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong v Coolamon

Sunday September 5: Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes v Wagga Tigers

Sunday September 12: Grand final

FARRER LEAGUE

Saturday September 4: Marrar v North Wagga

Sunday September 5: East Wagga-Kooringal v The Rock-Yerong Creek

Saturday September 11: grand final

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