The Central Highlands football and netball leagues have adopted a new three-week finals series as they aim to finish their seasons by the October 3 cut-off date.
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The finals are set to be run over three weeks instead of four, with all eight teams in each grade remaining in the hunt for a premiership.
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If the finals can begin on September 11 or 18, in week one, first would play eighth, second would play seventh, third would play sixth and fourth would play fifth in elimination finals.
In week two, the highest ranked winner would play the lowest ranked winner and the second highest ranked winner would play the third highest ranked winner for a spot in a grand final.
CHFL president Doug Hobson told The Courier giving each team that qualified a chance to play finals was the league's objective.
"It gives (teams) a chance to get a game in the finals, which they deserve to have," he said.
"As we've seen through all this year, nothing about life in general let alone (sport) is fair and even.
"Whatever we can extract out football wise, if we're able to, we will try and do."
It means that top four sides that are accustomed to the double-chance, will now face elimination finals in week one.
Central Highlands is in the midst of a third consecutive missed weekend, the leagues now with a month available to complete finals.
Premier Daniel Andrews said on Thursday that he thought regional Victoria could enjoy some lockdown reprieve next week.
If eased restrictions allow the Central Highlands to play, they could be able to return on September 11 and 12.
While the four weeks would be available to complete a traditional finals series in this scenario, Hobson said it was not viable in these uncertain times.
"It is mathematically still possible that we could get a whole four weekends to get the finals in, but number one for starters we've got to get out of lockdown and be allowed to return to community sport," he said.
"Also, there's no guarantee we're going to get four clear weeks to do that.
"What we've proposed is to tighten the finals series up."
If there are only two weeks available up until October 3, the bottom four sides would be dropped from the finals and the top four sides would play in preliminary finals.
If October 2 and 3 is the only weekend available to play, first and second-placed sides would play off in grand finals.
What the CHFL has up its sleeve is that it chose not to adopt AFL Victoria guidelines around returning to play from abandoned rounds before the season.
They state that if four to six consecutive rounds are missed, the season may recommence at the next scheduled round following a minimum seven-day training period, at the discretion of the league.
Without having to provide a training block before playing, it frees the CHFL up to return whenever the state government allows it.
Hobson said the league could explore shortened quarters for the seniors and reserves due to the long lay-off, but nothing is confirmed yet.
In the case of fixtures clashing with the AFL grand final on September 25, Hobson said the league has considered some options.
"The AFL, now they're playing in Perth, they're either going to be a 5 or a 5:30pm start, which makes it a 7 or 7:30 start (here)," he said.
"If we are playing on that day, we are looking to just tighten up our matches, starting times earlier and try and get everybody home at a reasonable time to watch the grand final."
Football week-one fixtures
Seniors
Gordon vs Skipton
Hepburn vs Waubra
Rokewood-Corindhap vs Springbank
Dunnstown vs Buninyong
Reserves
Newlyn vs Rokewood-Corindhap
Hepburn vs Creswick
Dunnstown vs Bungaree
Skipton vs Buninyong
Under 18
Rokewood-Corindhap vs Waubra
Springbank vs Bungaree
Newlyn vs Beaufort
Gordon vs Carngham-Linton
Under 15
Buninyong vs Gordon
Daylesford vs Dunnstown
Springbank vs Ballan
Waubra vs Learmonth
Netball week-one fixtures
A Grade
Buninyong vs Dunnstown
Hepburn vs Gordon
Rokewood-Corindhap vs Beaufort
Learmonth vs Springbank
B Grade
Learmonth vs Newlyn
Gordon vs Bungaree
Hepburn vs Springbank
Buninyong vs Waubra
C Grade
Springbank vs Ballan
Gordon vs Buninyong
Dunnstown vs Clunes
Hepburn vs Creswick
17 and under
Hepburn vs Daylesford
Buninyong vs Dunnstown
Waubra vs Bungaree
Springbank vs Learmonth
15 and under
Learmonth vs Rokewood-Corindhap
Skipton vs Buninyong
Bungaree vs Dunnstown
Hepburn vs Newlyn
13 and under
Springbank vs Ballan
Skipton vs Waubra
Newlyn vs Learmonth
Buninyong vs Clunes
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