Talks continue around how best to conclude the Tallangatta & District League season

The final round of the home-and-away season is due to be played behind closed doors on Saturday after lockdown was lifted for regional Victoria.

Finals without crowds would have stark financial implications but for Kiewa-Sandy Creek president Damien Britton, merely finishing the season is paramount.

"We need to play finals," he said.

"If it's done off the back of playing single games, per day, at different grounds to be able to fill the quota, if we end up playing our juniors on one ground and our seniors on another ground, I think that's got to happen.

"There's no throwing our hands in the air and saying 'no, we're not doing it.'

"For the mental wellness of playing groups right through, and I say this for everyone in the league, we need to make this happen.

"There's no saying 'we're not going to make any money so we can't do it' because if you're not going to make any money, what's it matter?"

In a normal year, the TDFL grand final would pull in gate-takings of around $45,000.

"Financially, it's huge," Britton said.

"I don't know how many people would go through the gate but it would be in the thousands.

"There would be up to 4000, I'd say, in the first weekend of finals so that's $25,000 you're not getting straight away.

"It's not just dollars and cents, it's a lot of money they're going to miss out on.

"But when we played juniors two weeks ago with no spectators, we still charged a small gate fee and we still ran our canteen for the kids. It wasn't hugely profitable but we made money for the day.

"I put it to the league, why don't we do it that way? Instead of the clubs getting the money from the canteen, why can't the league do it and try to gain some money that way?

"I'm sure, if it means playing finals, every club would come at it."

Britton fears large numbers of young players may be lost to the game if no premiers are crowned again.

"We all said at the start of the season we were worried about kids leaving football," he said.

"Well, it's not so much the kids because they want to play but it's the parents. If we don't get an end game, parents are just going to say 'why would we bother into next year, let's go and do something else.'

"The senior group needs an end game too because we had guys at the start of the year say 'if we don't get a season, we're not going to give it our all.'

"It's so hard. Clubs are struggling with helpers and we need to have a definitive finish so people look at next year and say 'we can do this, it did finish last year, let's move forward.'"

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The league contacted clubs on Monday to gauge their opinions.

"I was one that said 'let's play finals' two weeks ago but I can see the positives in clubs getting one game under their belt before finals," Britton said.

"The idea of the league letting us go to 22, with that extra person on the bench, is a must and that needs to go into finals as well because of the season we've had.

"It's a lot better for clubs and players and it's better for the sport because if we end up having spectators allowed, it's going to be a better game of football.

"It means they're going to be fitter, it's going to be faster and a lot better for the game."

The third-placed Hawks are joined in the top five by Yackandandah, Chiltern, Barnawartha and Tallangatta ahead of round 16.

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