The Ballarat Football Netball League board was meeting on Wednesday night as the league finds itself in an unenviable position with 15 finals sides under strict lockdown for at least three more weeks and time running out to start a finals series.

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Three BFNL clubs - Melton, Melton South and Sunbury - are within metropolitan Melbourne's boundaries and will be housebound until 70 per cent of Victorians have had a first dose of vaccine.

When the state reaches that benchmark, which is expected around September 23, the travel limit will increase to 10 kilometres, up from five, outlawing any non-essential travel to regional Victoria.

There are no clues what will happen with community sport on that date - but the state government's plans for the exercise limit to rise from two hours to three per day and outdoor personal training sessions to return with only two people and one trainer are a bleak indication of the likelihood of team sport being allowed to return.

Compounding the BFNL's woes, is the hard date of October 2 set for the grand final.

If the competition cannot return on Saturday, September 25 the league would have missed eight straight weekends, forcing a mandatory 14-day training period under AFL Victoria guidelines.

That training period would take the season past its October 2 deadline.

Wednesday's announcement did not bring bad news for the whole state, with Premier Daniel Andrews flagging that regional Victoria could be released from lockdown next week - though he warned not to expect substantial changes.

It opens the door for the Central Highlands football netball leagues finals series to start, as well as the resumption of other regional-based competitions, like the Ballarat and District Soccer Association.

The Central Highlands leagues can return by September 11 or 12 without having to allow clubs to train for seven days, or without having to change its finals format.If the season instead returns on September 18 clubs a seven-day training period will be enforced and teams that finished seventh and eighth would be dropped out of the finals in a condensed finals series.

For each weekend missed after that, a further two teams would be eliminated each week.

The latest the CHFL and CHNL will consider playing grand finals is Sunday, October 3.

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