Wodonga Raiders hopeful Ovens and Murray will award club a final as lockdown hits pocket

The Raiders were scheduled to play four of the final six rounds of the season at Birallee Park, but lost their round 13 clash against Myrtleford last weekend and won't have the chance to host Lavington on Saturday after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Tuesday the statewide lockdown would continue for at least another seven days.

Yarrawonga is in the same boat, losing home matches in rounds 13 and 14 and only having played five of their allotted nine games at J.C. Lowe Oval, which included one at Mulwala's Lonsdale Reserve on April 4, this season.

Albury and Wodonga are the only two clubs in the league to not be denied a home game with the loss of rounds 13 and 14 from the lockdown.

On top of missing out on the chance to welcome Myrtleford at the weekend, traditionally a good day for a host given Myrtleford's strong away following, Raiders' president Mark Johnston revealed the club also had three cancellations for functions, setting it back around $20,000.

"We had a football function on the Saturday, a private function on the Friday night and another function on the Sunday afternoon," Johnston said.

"It's pretty hard to say how much you'd make depending on what sort of crowd attends, but you'd be looking at hopefully $5000 per function.

"We have things like our Golden Circle, which we're going to have to postpone. That was due for August 1, but with the current situation it probably won't go ahead on that day.

"For a game day you're hoping to bring in $10,000 and clear over $5000 for a lower game, but the bigger blockbusters we do better.

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"We would consider it (losing two home games) would give us some advantage if we wanted to host a final.

"There would need to be discussions with the Ovens and Murray, but we hope there would be some leeway in that respect. That's what we'd be looking at anyway."

Johnston doesn't expect it to get any easier, even if regional Victoria is released from lockdown by next Wednesday.

"It's pretty hard to be putting any extra games in now, especially if you're losing two to three weeks and I'd imagine we'd lose three because I can't see us going back to full capacity straight away," he said.

"Last year we put our limit at 500 and we thought we'd at least break even with a crowd of 500.

"We'd be hoping it's between 500 and 1000 and we could then continue on.

"The lack of player payments for games we don't play saves a bit, but it doesn't affect your running costs and that sort of stuff."

Birallee Park hosted the second semi-final between Lavington and Wangaratta in 2019, the first finals fixture at the venue since the second semi between Albury and Lavington in 2016.

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