To the surprise of very few players, coaches, or administrators within the Southern Tablelands Football Association, the remainder of the 2021 season has been called off.
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The announcement was released on Friday via the association's Facebook page. STFA director of football, Craig Norris, said the decision was made due to the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown in the Goulburn Mulwaree LGA.
"We looked at the cases popping up every day," Norris said.
"We were getting towards a restart date in mid-October, and there was the announcement that community sport won't return until we've gotten to 80 per cent double vaccinations.
"It just looked like we just weren't going to get there. It may have been close but we had to give everybody a bit of closure."
One of the other factors which influenced the STFA's decision was the health risk to the players. Though the association would have given teams at least a week's worth of training to prepare for a return to the pitch, Norris said the intensity of a finals series on the back of extended inactivity made the risk of injury too high.
"The injury part is something that hasn't been spoken about or thought about too much, but we were mindful that trying to come back and play semi-final football after two months off would be tough," he said.
"Player welfare was in our minds as well."
The STFA stated previously that the teams on top of their respective ladders in each division would be named premiers if the season was halted early.
Now that it has been announced, the association confirmed that the premiers were:
- Under 13s - Stags Black
- Under 13 Girls - Crookwell
- Under 15s - Goulburn Workers Gold FC
- Youth League - Crookwell (points per game method was used due to the uneven number of matches played)
- All Age Men - Goulburn Strikers
In order to farewell the 2021 season and recognise the high achievers over the last six months, the STFA intends to go ahead with its presentation night as soon as possible.
Though Norris acknowledged that the event would likely need to be held virtually, as it was last year, he said the STFA was not opposed to holding an in-person event once it is safe enough to do so.
"At this stage, we're looking to hold it post-October long weekend. We put the nominations out for some of our major awards last week," Norris said.
"It will probably be virtual, but if we see a green light come October or November, we might try to do something, maybe outdoors or at Cookbundoon."
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