THE future of the 2020 Riverland Netball Association season is likely to be announced over the coming weekend.
A meeting of the executive committee tomorrow night is set to see a decision made whether to push ahead with a reduced fixture or officially cancel the season.
Speaking to the Murray Pioneer on Monday, Riverland Netball Association (RNA) president Jessie Miller said it was “a really tough decision”.
“We are holding an executive meeting on Thursday night and we have received the majority of responses from clubs as to whether they would like to proceed with the competition,” she said.
“We have had to ask them if the guidelines and protocols put in place by Netball SA are achievable for our clubs, because that was the initial feedback that we heard.
“We needed to know as an executive if people wanted to follow on from that and if they want to proceed, because we can’t create a season unless they wanted to continue.
“We have to get team nominations at the beginning of the season, and this is usually done in about March and we needed to know if people could honour those, because that would change the dynamic as to what we had already planned for the season.
“We have to get this all sorted by July 3.
“That is the latest we have decided that we can commence the season.”
Ms Miller said the executive committee’s decision will be released when possible.
“We have to let all the clubs know and we have to let Netball SA know,” she said.
“I’d like to have another chat to Shane Uren from the RFL about how our seasons could work around each other.
“There is a lot to get worked out before we can announce anything.
“I’d like to see something over the weekend.
“We are really positive as an executive committee, because we don’t want to see people go to all this effort to potentially see a season not go ahead.
“It would be very disappointing if it didn’t, but we fully understand what clubs are going through.”
Ms Miller said the executive committee has an idea of what the season could look like if it goes ahead.
“We are planning on 10 minor rounds minimum, that is what we decided could constitute a season for us,” she said.
“We haven’t looked at finals yet.
“Of course, we would like a normal finals series, with the normal format, but that is something we would have to look into.
“We are working really closely with football to make sure we have different weekends for our finals.”
Ms Miller said the clubs have been “awesome” to work with throughout the uncertain times.
“I have been holding Saturday zoom meetings and things like that, and everyone has been really proactive,” she said.
“Because, they needed to know what was involved so they could educate their members.
“It has been very full on and it is a lot of responsibility for the volunteers within our clubs and I think that is what our executive now has to weigh up as to whether it is achievable to hold a season.”
If the RNA does decide to cancel its season, it would join a number of other competitions across the state that have already made the tough call.
“I believe it is up to 10 associations as of yesterday,” Ms Miller said.
“Some of them are with football and some of them have sort of gone rogue on their own.
“They are 10 major associations.
“I think once the initial association pulled the pin, which was Port Pirie I believe, it sort of set a trend, because no one wants to be the first cab off the rank.
“It became realistic that what has been put on the table could be too much work for our volunteers.
“But, we are ploughing through and seeing what we can do, because the general consensus is that it may not be 100 per cent of what we started with, but people still do want to hit the court.”