At least two clubs in the Central Highlands Netball League have expressed their desire not to participate even if a season gets underway in 2020.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
CHNL president Natalie Clark revealed the news on Monday as talk continues across the region about whether or not competition will get underway this year.
Clark said clubs had concerns about COVID-19 and the demands on volunteers.
"I've had two clubs say they wouldn't field teams even if it comes up," Clark told The Courier.
"They consider the risks and requirements of volunteers at the moment still too strong to look at that.
"The closer we get towards the end of the season, the more other clubs might come up and say they are not interested either.
"I'd still love it to happen, but I just think the focus has now got to be on the juniors really."
Clark said running a netball season away from football - if it was deemed too hard for that sport to resume this year - was not something the CHNL committee was entertaining.
"That's not something that we would even consider doing," she said.
"Girls have the option to play netball in Ballarat at Wendouree or at BNA so there's other options to play netball anyway whereas football is just generally your Saturday competition.
"Financially I wouldn't think it would be viable to run just netball either..."
Netball Victoria has recently given the green light for clubs to resume training in groups of up to 20 people, providing a range of restrictions are met. These include a requirement to maintain 1.5-metre physical distancing, not have any spectators at venues and that all balls are sanitised before and after sessions.
NV has also expressed a desire to have competitive netball up and running in July, but there remains no clear decision from the state government just yet.
"Netball Victoria continues to advocate on behalf of our community to the state government for a roadmap to resume competitive netball. At this point in time, we are advocating for a recommencement of competition netball in mid-July 2020," a NV statement last week read.
"We are aware our netball community are doing all you can to make decisions in this uncertain environment. We encourage you to wait for the Victorian government announcements regarding further easing of restrictions before making any definitive decisions.
"We expect to see a strong Return to Community Netball and look forward to continuing to work with our passionate netball community to achieve this."