Ovens and Murray to resume on June 12 after COVID lockdown

The State Government ordered the week-long lockdown, finishing at 11.59pm on Thursday, June 3.

Play was originally set to resume on Saturday after last weekend's interleague bye, but it will now start on Saturday, June 12.

"With a seven-day lockdown enacted by the State government, the OMFNL Board deemed that the time frame for clubs and players to prepare for round nine matches coming out of the lockdown period was inadequate. Whilst it is disappointing to suspend play after a wonderful start to the ... season, the health and safety of all stakeholders aligned to the competition was the priority," O and M chairperson David Sinclair said.

"When the draw was conceived, contingencies were made to allow for two rounds of possible changes without impacting finals."

Should Victoria move out of the lockdown, as hoped, next week, the post-COVID period will be a straight 15-week block to finish the year, given the two split rounds will now be taken.

However, the league hasn't pushed back all rounds by two weeks, with the following changes.

The other rounds will remain as originally scheduled.

"We spoke to the clubs prior to us flagging this (revised) option because some clubs were impacted by those split rounds, either moving forward or back, but none of them had a planned big event, other than Corowa-Rutherglen on June 12," league general manager Craig Millar offered.

The Roos will celebrate their 20-year premiership reunion against Albury.

COVID wiped out last season, meaning the Roos were forced to delay their maiden 2000 flag celebrations.

"It would have been a disaster if we had to rejig the whole fixture and events that had been planned would had to have been readjusted, this was the most minimal impact on the competition," Millar suggested.

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"Albury has a major networking function on Friday, June 18, that was originally leading into the club's bye, but they were fantastic, they said our players can still attend and play the next day."

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