TO: ALL CLUBS
FROM: Linda Cerone
DATE: 25th June 2021
SUBJECT: Circular # 2021-032
Decisions regarding Football Operations Weekend of 25-27 June 2021
This weekend is proving to be a difficult challenge for us all, on many different fronts and we’re seeing, once again, that these challenges are bringing out the best and worst in people. You only need to read some of the comments on our Facebook page to know what I’m talking about.
For those of you who have been supportive, and cooperative throughout the challenges of the last two days, you have my deepest gratitude on behalf of everyone at Nepean Football who are trying to work hard to deliver football to those who want to play.
The latest directive from the state government regarding COVID-19 restrictions tells us that individuals who live or work in the Sydney CBD and 3 other areas of Sydney must put themselves into lockdown this afternoon for seven days. The wording is as follows:
Any person who lives or works in any of the four LGAs listed below must stay home until midnight next Friday unless it is for an essential reason.
- City of Sydney;
- Randwick;
- Waverley; and
- Woollara
The reasons you may leave your home include:
- Shopping for food or other essential goods and services;
- Medical care or compassionate needs;
- Exercise outdoors in groups of 10 or fewer; or
- Essential work, or education, where you cannot work or study from home.
The measures announced today extend upon the measures announced yesterday and those measures are now extended to midnight next Friday.
This directive will have various and varying effects on our ability to deliver a competition, however if COVID-19 has taught us one thing, it is that we must be resilient and we must get good at work arounds, which is what we have tried to do in the last 24 hours. NSW is showing other states that there are ways to live with this virus without shutting everything down each time it rears it’s ugly head.
For as many of you that are out there, is how many opinions there are that we’re being asked to consider. Many are similar, and they can essentially be put into two camps, i.e., “We want to Play” and “just cancel/postpone the round”.
We know from the previous impacts of COVID on community sport, that no matter what we do we will never please everyone. We therefore have two choices. We can try and serve as many people as possible, or we can please ourselves and take an easy way out and just cancel rounds. The latter doesn’t give you value for money and it doesn’t give you an opportunity to play football, and these two things are at the core of what we try to deliver at Nepean Football. Therefore, in a bid to be resilient, flexible and considerate of as many members as possible, while still delivering football, we will implement the following actions;
Yesterday we brought all competition games from the Non-Sydney metro areas, i.e., Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury and Wollondilly LGA’s into the Penrith LGA.
Today we’re hearing from clubs, several of whom are telling us that they may struggle to be able to provide enough committee members to actually host the games that we’ve put on their fields. Others are concerned that the government imposed lockdown on CBD workers will negatively impact their team’s ability to field full team for scheduled matches.
Therefore;
- The remaining Saturday matches will go ahead as scheduled.
- we have chosen to do this because most children are brought to games by their parent or parents, & the most children themselves are not directly affected by the lockdown imposed by the state government (unless they go to school in on of the listed LGA’s).
- If one parent is affected by lockdown the other may not be or parents may be able to organise a carpool situation or another relative to bring their children to their game.
- If junior teams find themselves in a situation where their registered numbers fall below 10 players, putting them at a disadvantage against their opposition, their clubs should contact us to confirm that the team will be adversely affected by the lockdown and we will postpone their game. We will not ask for proof, but we do hope that this consideration is treated with respect by all teams and clubs and that we aren’t deliberately misled.
- We will break with regular rules in this case and we will not require both teams to agree to a reschedule.
- In these situations the game will be postponed to an alternate date at the association’s discretion.
- Friday night & Sunday matches will proceed as scheduled.
- If a club informs us that their team or teams have four or more players affected by lockdown, or that their player total numbers will drop below 10 due to COVID lockdown restrictions, we will postpone their game and reschedule it to an alternate date at the association’s discretion.
- As with Saturday games we will not require the consent of the other team in order to postpone these matches.
- Finally if a club informs us (and we trust that clubs will be honest!) that they have insufficient committee members to be efficiently operational over the weekend, we will postpone the fixtures to be held at their home ground, including any neutral field games that they are hosting. These fixtures will be postponed and rescheduled to an alternate date at the association’s discretion.
Please note that any communication regarding unavailable venues or teams who cannot play due to covid restriction impacts must be made in writing, via email, to competitions@nepeanfootball.com.au . The notice must come from a Club Committee Member authorised to do so. Submissions from Coaches, Managers, Parents or Players will not be accepted.
We trust that these actions will be seen and accepted for what they are, which is an association trying its best to foster and deliver football to as many people who are able and willing to play, while accommodating those who are adversely affected by the current covered restrictions.
Regards,
Linda Cerone
Chief Executive Officer
Nepean FA. Inc.
