FOUR Riverina League presidents have formed a united front to implore AFL Riverina to revisit their decision to complete seasons by September 19, after the two-week extension to the regional lockdown made that impossible.
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The leaders of the four clubs in the first grade football finals - Jesse Cunningham (Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes), Jason Hamblin (Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong), Bryan Buchanan (Coolamon) and Paul Lucas (Wagga Tigers) - joined forces to pen a letter to AFL Riverina's board, urging them to lengthen the time frame.
The correspondence was sent on Thursday morning, before the regional NSW lockdown was extended until September 10.
They urged officials to adopt the stance of some other local leagues by being willing to play into October, with the letter requesting they attempt to complete the two-week finals series by the weekend of October 9-10.
AFL Riverina issued a brief statement on Thursday afternoon stating their board will meet on Monday to "assess what the latest lockdown restrictions means for our competitions".
The president's letter outlines a handful of options the clubs would like to see investigated, including;
- Finals starting as late as October 2-3 and finishing the following week, with grounds that don't have a cricket pitch to be venue options;
- Play local semi finals on Friday, September 18 and Sunday, September 19, then hold grand finals on the Friday and Sunday the following weekend before and after the AFL grand final (September 25);
- Play local semi finals on September 18-19, go into recess for the AFL grand final then play local grand finals on October 2-3 (not preferred option).
"I think the unity (letter) just strengthens the case that we're all on the same page, and want the same result," Cunningham said.
"We want to give every team that's made it this far every opportunity to compete in a finals series."
Cunningham doesn't believe volunteer fatigue should be an obstacle.
"The feedback we've got from volunteers is we've come this far, and we've put in so much work attended countless meeting to put teams on the park (for us to quit now)," Cunningham said.
"It would probably go the opposite way and have a detrimental impact on them if we didn't get every opportunity to play finals.
"We've got sponsors you have a commitment to. In the current climate with the small businesses that have supported us, we want to give them something back and lift their spirits in these tough times.
"There's thousands of dollars invested in running clubs. We can't just give up now."
AFL Riverina outlined avoiding a clash with the AFL grand final, currently scheduled for September 5, for the short deadline, but Cunningham believes clubs involved in local deciders would be willing to play on the same day.
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"If you put a poll out to players, supporters, volunteers and sponsors of a club playing in a grand final, I think they'd happily play on the same day," he said.
"You get to watch an AFL grand final every year for the rest of your life. A chance to play in a grand final doesn't come around every year."
The letter to the AFL Riverina board outlined the clubs' desire to be included in any future decisions impacting this season.
"What most clubs would like from AFL Riverina would to be consulted before you make decisions that are detrimental to our league," is said.
"We understand the league shares the club's passions when it comes to getting a finals series to its completion, however we that the short date range is a poor reflection of this.
"We understand there are many to things to consider and potential implications do exist, however we would request that these issues be talked through in a collaborative way where obstacles may be able to be removed and solutions be found to provide as much opportunity as possible to get through the season.
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