No Saturday afternoons at the club, players and coaches unable to participate and weekends often stuck at home.

READ MORE SPORT:

It has also meant that the usually even fixture, playing each team once, has been compromised slightly, with some sides facing a tougher run than others.

Bungaree, who sits 15th with one win to its name, had one of the toughest draws to start the season, facing five of the current top eight sides in the first six rounds.

Round seven and eight presented Creswick and Ballan, both games the Demons would have expected to win.

They lost that opportunity and now look forward to Clunes and Learmonth in rounds nine and 10, winnable games no doubt, but tough asks after a difficult start to the season.

Skipton missed out on clashes with Ballan and Clunes, both very winnable games that could have taken the Emus into the top eight.

They'll now await games against Learmonth and Daylesford, also winnable, but as is the case with Bungaree, tough contests.

On the other side of the coin, Newlyn is one of the sides better off.

The Cats missed games against Hepburn and Rokewood-Corindhap, and will face Creswick and Ballan in rounds nine and 10.

The latter two should result in wins for Newlyn and all of a sudden, the top eight seems a lot closer than it did two weeks ago.

The Cats have also been able to let Marcus Darmody, Myles and Brad Sewell rest and rehab their injuries without missing them in games.

Darmody (hamstring) and Myles (lower knee knock) have played two and one game respectively, while Brad (knee surgery) hasn't been seen yet, but is expected to return in the second half of the season.

Dunnstown, despite no doubt wanting to test itself against the best, have been able to avoid Gordon for the time being.

The Towners were scheduled to face the Eagles this weekend.

Instead they'll look to an expected win over Beaufort in round nine, then to Hepburn in round 10.

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.

Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.