Sure enough, the rain has closed in and parts of the Walla Walla Sportsground are already resembling a quagmire under steely skies. It's a day for gum boots and big coats - but not a day to stay inside. Not after the fortnight we've had.

Nothing about COVID should surprise us any more, yet few could have anticipated the Hume League, a NSW competition, going into recess as a result of stay-at-home orders in Victoria.

And once that first call had been made, you felt little would change seven days later, with lockdown still in place, yet league officials and clubs put their heads together and came up with a way to play on: premiership points scrapped in favour of the match ratio system, so as not to further punish clubs already hamstrung by the number of players stranded south of the border.

Uncertainty has been the buzz word, so I'm fascinated as to how Rand-Walbundrie-Walla co-presidents Chris 'Wal' Collins and Kev Wardius have handled things.

The phone hasn't stopped," Collins said. "Everyone's wondering what's happening and you're answering calls, talking to the league and trying to work out the direction we're going in."

"We were trying to get answers but we couldn't get them," Wardius added.

"Last week, we were probably on a different page, me and him. I was erring on the side of caution and Wal wanted to play a bit more."

"I wanted to give the people their footy and interaction with everyone," Collins said.

"There's some people you haven't seen for a while so you catch up with them at the football on Saturday and it's good for people's mental health."

But physical health has been uppermost in everyone's mind, too, especially after Jindera came under the national spotlight when removalists from Sydney, who later tested positive, were revealed to have stopped at the town's Shell petrol station. The search for close contacts began, there were long queues for testing at the Bulldogs ground and anxiety was widespread.

"A lot of us are farmers and Saturday's our day out," Wardius said. "You work all week and that's your interaction with your locals, the opposition and you just make it your day to go and have a bit of fun.

"But I was aware of the Jindera thing too.

"Everything was in place on Thursday night but we didn't get notified until late on Friday that it was being called off. We were playing at Walbundrie then so we couldn't stop preparing, we had to keep planning."

"We had two home games in a row so the ladies in the canteen were trying to order their food," Collins added. "They've got to put orders in by Wednesday at the latest so you're waiting for the call on what we're actually going to do. It was interesting, I suppose."

Kitchen manager Carolyn Seidel admitted it wasn't ideal.

"It's been even more challenging for the small businesses who provide the food," she said. "I really feel sorry for them, to be cancelled at the last minute.

"You've got to put in orders early in the week and then on Friday afternoon they're told we can't go ahead. I think they bear the brunt of it more than we do."

It's not hard to see where Seidel gets her sense of perspective.

"My husband was a footballer, he's Walbundrie born and bred so he's always been involved," she said.

"The club was very forthcoming when he was diagnosed with cancer 10 years ago. They did a big fundraiser and really stepped up when we needed them.

"Sue Collins and Rick Clancy organised a big dinner and auction and raised quite a bit of money and everyone supported us again when he was re-diagnosed four years ago.

"Football and netball makes the communities exist. It's a social function, talking to people and everyone supporting the community and keeping the towns alive.

"Without the club, you don't have the pubs and it just doesn't work."

Seidel's team of helpers is keeping the customers fed and watered while we talk.

"I get to meet different people" she said. "That's my big thing.

"You can come to these events but it's meeting all the different players and feeling like you belong and you're part of something.

"They all do sandwiches and cakes and they help to cook chips and serve over the counter.

"It's even simple things like making a cup of coffee. It's teaching the young ones life skills, how to handle money, how to prepare food.

"It's the best place to be on a cold, wet day like this," she added before heading back into the kitchen. "I'll get plenty of helpers today."

The siren sounds and the Giants under-17s have beaten their Brock-Burrum counterparts by 96 points.

Samuel Miller, with his four goals capping a season's best performance, emerges from the rooms beaming.

"It's a great feeling, there's nothing better," he said.

"I played one year, had an injury and stopped for two years. This is my first year back.

"I was nervous at first but the boys welcomed me. It's great coming out here every weekend and I've loved getting my confidence back up."

However, older brother Jacob Miller will be limited to a spectating role for the forseeable future, having snapped his collar bone playing for the reserves.

"It's not looking too good," he admitted. "I'll probably have to have surgery.

"I had concussion and an ankle injury earlier in the season but other than that, I was travelling pretty well and pushing for seniors.

"We both played at Thurgoona for a few years before coming here," he added.

"It's a very welcoming club so that made it easy. I've made some of my best mates here and it feels like home now.

"I love getting out there with the boys, having fun. It's pretty good banter out there, a good culture and it's good having a few beers with them afterwards.

"I don't know if I'll ever go anywhere else. We love it out here."

The Giants could play finals in all four football grades this season but it required some major changes to develop that sort of strength in depth.

Ian Kreutzberger, now the club secretary, played for Rand until he was 37 and saw the changes happen in real time.

"Mum and Dad didn't take me to footy much but I just liked playing," he said. "We didn't have many good seasons and I suppose my biggest highlight was as a football administrator.

"I was president when we came from nowhere to make the grand final in the Coreen League in about 1991. We lost but the fact we were competitive again felt good.

"However, with the way farming systems changed, a lot of the farms got bigger and our school just didn't have the numbers. We couldn't get a junior side. We probably could have kept going by paying outsiders for a senior side but that's only short-term when you've got no juniors."

So Rand joined forces with Walbundrie.

"It surprised a lot of people outside of us but the wheels were in motion between the two presidents at the time," Wardius explained. "It had to happen and it was good for both clubs."

"In 2016, when Rand-Walbundrie merged with Walla, it was simply the same thing," Collins added.

"The numbers of juniors were getting low and our projected five-year outlook wasn't very good. Walla were really struggling so it made sense to combine the three towns."

Not that everyone was keen.

"I was dead against it," said Alan Odewahn in between selling raffle tickets and opening the bar. "But we wouldn't have been able to keep going otherwise.

"The players weren't there and the money wasn't around for what players were asking.

"We'd been looking into mergers with different clubs for 10 years when Rand-Walbundrie approached our president and said maybe next year we should try to get together. Someone said 'why don't we do it this year?' and that was best, because we didn't have time to think about it.

"I've been on the committee all the time and we've gone very well. We've had very few disputes. A lot of people say it should never have happened - but they're not running the club."

Amanda McCall, the club's NetSetGO co-ordinator, has spent a week ploughing through Messenger chats with her fellow sub-committee members about plans for today.

"It's really tricky, trying to do the best by everyone in the club," she said. "You don't want to not play netball but you also don't want to put people at risk by having these things on.

"It's the same for me; did I want to bring three kids out in these times? But do you restrict yourself when you don't need to?

"It's so good for all the young kids, having these friendships with kids from different towns.

"It's the same for the adults, I know we've got social media but nothing compares to standing with someone and having a proper chat."

A sentiment shared by the men at the top of the club.

"We talk about things a lot," Wardius smiled. "But Wal's the number one. He's up there... and I'm here. I love it that way.

"Wal's been president for four years and he does a great job. I'm probably not president material but no-one else wanted to take it on so he asked me.

"He has a great relationship with the junior core of people in the club as well as the old core. His relationship with the players is really good and he mixes with them very well.

"He's more of a PR man than I am. He knows a little bit more about it, he comes across better and he knows what's going on."

BEHIND THE SCENES - IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM:

"I took over from Alan Thomas and Noel Garlick was president with me at the time," Collins said. "When he stood down, I needed someone to work with me.

"Having three towns, it's good to have someone else to bounce ideas off.

"As a kid, I've grown up with Kev and he's guided me in life so for me, it was a no-brainer to get Kev to work with me, to do the footy side of it.

"I wasn't much good at footy but I enjoy the PR side of it all. Having that interaction with the players, I suppose being a younger president, I probably can get on their level a little bit more. They respect that in a sense."

"You can understand where they're coming from, more so than I would," Wardius agreed.

Their willingness to work together and lean on each other mirrors the relationship between Rand, Walbundrie and Walla; three proud farming communities whose merged identity is so much greater than the sum of its parts.

However unlikely this day of community sport looked just a few short days ago, the Giants have pulled it off.

And as the big, big sound of the team song echoes through the gloom as the rain continues to lash down, why would you want to be anywhere else?

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