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Community sport will remain on hold until Thursday, September 2, with a Victorian regional lockdown to come into force at 1pm on Saturday.
This means the second week of Central Highlands and Ballarat football and netball finals scheduled for next weekend will not take place.
There remains no change to the plan the BFNL announced this week for a senior finals series to start on September 11 at the earliest.
UPDATE
Central Highlands and Ballarat football and netball finals planned for this weekend have been called off after the State Government on Friday night requested all regional community sport be cancelled owing.
The BFNL, CHFL and CHNL responded quickly to cancel the weekend's game.
The BFNL was to have had the first week of junior football and netball finals, and junior girls finals.
The CHFL and CHNL were also to have opened their finals series.
The impact on the Ballarat and District Soccer Association is also substantial with a full round of senior and juniors plans for Sunday called off.
FRIDAY 7.30PM
Community sport is coming to terms with a fourth interruption to the winter seasons as regional Victoria braces for a seventh lockdown.
Late on Friday night, the state government asked all community sporting leagues to cancel their weekend's activities - just over 12 hours before the junior grades were supposed to kick off the first round of the Central Highlands and Ballarat football and netball leagues' finals.
An announcement that regional Victoria would go back into lockdown is expected on Saturday morning.
The situation sport finds itself in is well-known - five reasons to leave home, all codes and competitions outlawed, players and clubs left waiting anxiously for what the future might hold.
Luckily, it's not the end of the world for the Central Highlands football and netball leagues yet.
The leagues had allocated a seven-week block in which they are aiming to complete the four-week finals series.
It means this weekend's scheduled qualifying and eliminations won't be abandoned, but it's likely the grand final date could be pushed back.
The Ballarat Football Netball League's senior competitions were already meant to miss this weekend after ending its home-and-away season early.
A typical 16-round season was reduced to just 11 rounds after Melbourne's extended lockdown impacted three metropolitan-based clubs - Melton, Sunbury, and Melton South.
For the Greater Western Victoria Rebels, the wait to return to Mars Stadium continues. The Rebels haven't played there since before regional Victoria's sixth lockdown a couple of weeks ago.
In other codes, it looks like it will be a brutal way to end the season.
The first ever grand final in the Western Victorian Women's Baseball League between two Surf Coast Sharks teams was scheduled to be played in Alfredton on Sunday.
The ladder-leading Ballarat Royals will also miss the last round of the Geelong Baseball Association A grade scheduled.
The Ballarat and District Soccer Association will be forced to re-schedule another round with finals creeping ever closer.