With the 2021 Christie and Hood Castle-reagh League competition currently sus-pended due to NSW Health regulations, a meeting of the clubs on Monday night has produced a COVID contingency plan.
Castlereagh League spokesperson Bryson Luff said three Local Government Areas were locked down last week which affected the last round of the competition, and following ad-vice from NSW Rugby League, the Round 18 games were suspended.
Since then the entire state has been placed under Stay at Home orders and what lies ahead is unknown.
The clubs met on Monday night via Zoom to discuss where they go from here.
“Obviously our hands are tied until we know how long it will be until we can resume playing,” Luff said.
“But we needed to talk about a number of possible options for the completion of our 2021 competition, and put a time frame on when we move from one option to the next.”
He said, in the hope of bringing the pan-demic affected 2021 competition to some form of suitable conclusion, the clubs (with advice from NSW Rugby League) have adopted a contingency plan.
“Round 18 games, that were due to be played on August 14, have all been declared nil-all draws with one competition point being awarded to each team,” Luff said.
In terms of teams making the League Tag semi finals, this means the Cobar Roosterettes have finished in 5th place with the Gilgandra Pink Panthers eliminated from the semi finals after placing 6th. (Cobar and Gilgandra fin-ished on equal points and were to have played each other in the last round which was can-celled.)
Cobar was not affected by the last round nil-all result in the First Grade competition after the Roosters finished the season clearly out in front. They had claimed the minor premier-ship two weeks out from the end of the regu-lar competition.
The results of the final round only affected how the 4th (Gulgong) and 5th (Coonabarabran) placed teams would finish.
Baradine, in 6th place, was well out of sem-is contention anyway.
Luff said with a view to allowing at least a couple of training sessions before resuming playing the following “cut off” dates will apply: if training/playing can resume by mid September, a five team semi final series can be played; if training/playing is not allowed until the end of September then a four team semi final series can be played over three weeks; if it’s October before the season can re-start, there’s an option for a four team semi final to be played over two weeks; and the final option (for a mid October restart) is only the top two sides would play a grand final.
“We will be doing everything possible to ensure that the 2021 season is concluded.
“Just how that conclusion is arrived at re-mains to be seen,” Luff said.
