Albury-Wodonga Junior Football League opts to reduce finals series to complete season on time

At a board meeting this week, it was decided the top-eight format for the under-12s, 14s and 16s competition, played over four weeks, would be replaced with a two-week finals series to be played between the top-three sides in each grade.

When Victoria's fifth lockdown since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was announced in July, the competition's final two home and away rounds were set to be lost until the clubs expressed a desire to complete those matches when the lockdown lifted, so those not in finals contention didn't end up playing less.

However, only one of those was completed last weekend as the state's sixth lockdown, announced on Thursday, looks likely to end the home and away season prematurely.

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"It was a really tough decision to make because some of the clubs were really eager to maintain the traditional format we have," AWJFL operations manager Matthew Elliott said.

"Meeting with the board this week, their desire was not to cause a lot of disruption and place a lot of pressure on the member clubs and families, but also umpire and ground availability.

"There was a lot of different factors that came into it in trying to finish when as we originally scheduled."

Elliott also manages the AFL North East Border Female Football League, which started finals last Sunday and needs two more weekends to wrap up the season.

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