The decision to abandon the 2020 Ballarat league under-nine football season due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 will have disappointed many youngsters.
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But spare a thought for the region's newest football club - the Woady Yaloak Warriors - which was gearing up for its inaugural season in the BFNL.
While the club will have to wait to take the field, it's not all doom and gloom according to Warriors president Adam Liversage.
"A lot of hard work went in to getting it up and running, get it promoted through the media and the local community, chasing up the sponsors and getting the guernseys organised, so on that front it was really disappointing," he said.
"You've got to look after your community's health and well-being... and the bigger picture is that we're all safe. Football is always going to be there and I think everyone will bounce back."
While the Warriors have only been granted a place in the BFNL's under-nine footy competition, the aim is to grow to other age groups and include netball sides in future years.
The under-nine teams will essentially become a progression for youngsters involved in Auskick within the district.
Liversage said the club had been ready to go for its first season.
"We were pretty well set up, I suppose. Like everyone else, it was just a waiting game to see whether or not we would be getting back out there and up and running again," he said.
Liversage said the silver lining was that the club had everything in place ready to go for next year.
"Even though it does put us a year behind in terms of our development, hopefully next year we'll just look at the under-nines again and then in 2022 we'll get the under-11s and then the netball team going the following year," he said.
"It has put us a year behind, but it does give us another year to establish ourselves and get our numbers up."
Liversage said he expected Auskick in the region to commence at some stage in the coming weeks.
In other news on Tuesday, AFL Victoria released updated return to training protocols.
Clubs can now train with two groups of 20 on an oval at any one time. This doesn't include a coach or the minimum number of support staff who are reasonably required to manage the activity.
While group sizes have been lifted from 10, many of the other COVID-19-related restrictions remain in place, including no physical contact being allowed between players. That rules out tackling, bumping and marking contests.
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