KIEWA-Sandy Creek president Damien Britton doubts the Tallangatta and District league season will get underway.
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Although the Hawk chief stressed he would love to see football and netball played, he fears too many obstacles need to be cleared for a meaningful competition to start.
Last year's preliminary finalists are one of several TDFL clubs to start training under strict coronavirus restrictions with the club sweating on the next round of government updates on June 22.
"I would love to see a season commence as that's what we are here for but we have to be realistic," Britton said.
"There are a lot of things you need to consider and we might be better off shelving it for this year.
"Obviously it depends a lot on crowd sizes and things like that.
"Then you have to think of players being ready as they will get injured if they are only half fit.
"A lot of clubs are saying they won't have the seconds numbers as well with players dropping off.
"It's a tough one as everyone wants to play footy but I think we have to be realistic."
Mitta United president Alex Beggs has similar fears and says the June 22 announcements will determine whether the league kicks off.
"We are happy to wait and see what the head office says," Beggs said.
"If the restrictions haven't lifted by later in the month though, it's going to be hard.
"I would have been happy to have made a decision by now but we are under the AFL NEB umbrella and all we can do is wait."
TDFL officials believe crowd restrictions would need to be lifted to at least 500 people to make home matches financially viable.
Ovens and Murray chairman David Sinclair said this week 500, plus participants, was the magical number.
Britton said the Hawks wanted to get senior training underway for the mental well-being of the players.
"At the end of the day it's not just about football," he said.
"It's more about mateship.
"One of our players said he hadn't had a physical conversation with a player for nine weeks.
"Some players would struggle with that I think."
TDFL clubs are keen for a junior competition with Britton saying the Hawks would look at their options if the seniors fell over.
"We are thinking we might be able to run a local junior comp within our little cluster," he said
"You could have clubs like Mitta, Tallangatta, Dederang and Yackandandah involved in it.
"We could run it at night with the lights which might make things easier."
