As much as we all miss football, I can't see any local or NSW NPL competitions coming back in 2021.
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I saw the Mercury's story last week where Football South Coast chief executive officer Ann-Marie Balliana said they were planning to get their leagues up and running again this year.
However, the latest lockdown extension has cast huge doubts over grassroots football across Greater Sydney. By the time this lockdown ends, at end of August at best, the time it will require to get players conditioned and up and running - especially at a senior level - will make it quite difficult to finish any competition.
We've lost a lost of momentum now. And while you can do as much training as you want at home, I think you would need four to six weeks to get that match-hardened conditioning to get prepared to go into competitive games. With the time that's available to play, I think it's going to be very difficult, or the risk will be run for a lot of injuries.
To be honest, I think at least four weeks will be required for seniors to get up ready after this long break.
As for the kids, that might be a different story. They can probably get back into it a lot sooner than the adults. But this situation is looking tricky for the seniors.
I think people's thoughts on whether football should get up and running again will be mixed. At all levels of the game, every club will have a different opinion, probably depending on their position on the competition's table.
Clubs that are in a relegation battle will possibly be keen for the season to finish, if there are no ramifications with promotion or demotion, whereas teams towards the top will want to keep running.
In my opinion, if competitions are cancelled, I don't see why a premiership couldn't be awarded to the team that was on top at the moment. Last year, at NPL and local level, they were awarded after half a season.
I know that wasn't predicted to happen again in 2021, but I can't see why this year wouldn't be any different. I think the teams that have been good and led the way for over half a year should be rewarded.
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