'Now, we play the waiting game. Ah, the waiting game sucks, let's play Hungry, Hungry Hippos'.
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Homer Simpson may as well have been referring to the last, slow days towards the return of community sport in the Illawarra.
As of Friday afternoon, 71.49 per cent of the NSW population over the age of 16 were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, significantly ahead of the nation-wide figure of 60.2 per cent.
Illawarra's sporting leaders, from rugby league to football, golf, OzTag and athletics have joined forces for the #vaxtheillawarra campaign.
It's the final push needed to move past the magical 80 per cent mark.
Because then you can put the lockdown board games away and be able to attend the same seedy old nightclubs, with an excuse to not dance and be seedily hungover for a fourth grade cricket match the next day.
Just like the good old days.
In all seriousness, reaching the COVID milestone will be a welcome boost to a weary sporting community missing the routine and camaraderie, as well as the physical and mental wellbeing benefits.
Read more: AIS to lead new concussion research
The timing of the 80 per cent figure is perhaps most critical for cricket, sweating on ensuring a relatively complete season goes ahead.
"We're still looking at the November 6th start date," Cricket Illawarra administrator Glenn Bridge said.
"The 80 per cent at best might not be until October 25th and obviously people want to catch up with family before the competition starts.
"Community sport is not allowed to return until 80 per cent. We won't be bringing the comp forward."
Touch football is ready to hit the ground running, with an aim of starting junior competitions from October 27 and men's, women's and mixed seasons from November 1, if given the go-ahead.
Golf, with its natural advantage of groups of four, resumes this week, with the lure of a beer at the 19th as licensed venues reopen. Athletics officials are itching to launch summer programs, after months of only being able to train with a friend or coach.
And after being forced to cancel their marquee winter competitions Football South Coast is also eyeing a November return.
"We're hoping that we can run a six-week summer competition for juniors before Christmas," FSC chief executive Ann-Marie Balliana said.
"Our summer comp has over 2000 players so we figure if we can fit something in this year, we'll do a full-blown comp next year.
"So we're keen to get community sport up and running because our juniors especially have missed out on so much this year. We're targeting early November. We've left a little bit of a buffer because there needs to be time for registration and for people to sort their teams out. A lot of our clubs are also champing at the bit to organise trials and things, so the sooner they can sort their squads out, the better.
"As soon as we get any information from NSW Health and then through Football NSW, we've been letting clubs know within hours of us knowing. When we get the green light and balls can be kicked, I'm sure clubs will be ready to kick that ball."
For the other major football codes, including Illawarra Rugby League, Group Seven, Illawarra Rugby and AFL South Coast, there's a palpable sense of relief at the prospect of having a relatively standard pre-season underway.
All competitions were again cut short this season when the second COVID lockdown hit due to the Delta strain. Illawarra Rugby League general manager Chris Bannerman hopes for full season next year, but declared the only way forward was vaccination.
"That'd be nice after two badly interrupted seasons," he said. "Mind you, we don't know exactly what that means for unvaccinated people or people who haven't had the double vaccine.
"I think the best way forward for everyone to make sure they're able to participate in community support, particularly our junior and senior players, if you're eligible for a vaccine, go out and get vaccinated to make sure you're not caught up in any restrictions there may be in the future. We'd hate to see that happen."
with Josh Bartlett and Mitch Jennings
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