As the state navigates its way through the current COVID-19 situation, sports are making announcements left, right and centre on what is happening in regard to their respective seasons.
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The NSW regional lockdown will run until at least September 10 and that news has seen a number of sports cancel the remainder of their season.
Meanwhile, others are hoping to continue if lockdown is lifted and community sport is permitted to continue.
Here is a list on what different winter sports are planning.
CENTRAL NORTH RUGBY UNION
SEASON STATUS: CANCELLED
In a statement, CNRU said there was not enough time to complete a finals series in a "reasonable and realistic time frame" but they had explored every avenue to get the season back up and running.
NORTHERN INLAND FOOTBALL
SEASON STATUS: NOT CANCELLED
The Northern Inland Football season will continue if regional lockdown is lifted on September 10 and community sport is allowed to go ahead.
NIF plans to play a two-week finals series in September if allowed but an extension of the lockdown would spell the end of the season.
GROUP 4 RUGBY LEAGUE
SEASON STATUS: NOT CANCELLED
Group 4 is holding off on making a decision on its season.
Chairman Terry Psarakis said any decision on the continuation of a Group 4 season was dependent on NSW Health's lockdown. If allowed, Group 4 will give clubs time to train and then play a two-week finals series or a straight out grand final.
AFL NORTH WEST
SEASON STATUS: CANCELLED
The AFL North West said in a statement that: "the announcement that regional NSW will remain in lockdown until September 10 has ruled out any further final games."
NEW ENGLAND RUGBY UNION
SEASON STATUS: CANCELLED
In a statement, the zone said "in light of the regional lockdown being extended to September 10 and an uncertain future regarding the resumption of community sport, New England Rugby Union has made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the 2021 season".
TAMWORTH NETBALL ASSOCIATION
SEASON STATUS: NOT CANCELLED
Whether the regional lockdown is extended or not will determine the fate of the TNA season.
If lifted and community sport allowed, the grand finals will be played on September 11. If the lockdown is extended, the TNA season will be over.
TAMWORTH HOCKEY ASSOCIATION
SEASON STATUS: NOT CANCELLED
Tamworth Hockey Association remains hopeful of being able to play out the full season and has pushed back the grand finals to the October long weekend.
President Ross Briggs said: "Depending on when we come out of lockdown and are given the green light to resume community sport, we feel that this gives us the best opportunity to finish off our season."
TAMWORTH BASEBALL
SEASON STATUS: NOT CANCELLED
Tamworth Baseball plans to run a two-week finals series if lockdown is lifted on September 10 and community sport is allowed.
Meanwhile, an extension of the regional lockdown wouldn't necessarily mean the end of baseball this year. President Dave McMurray said the board had another potential option but it needed to be discussed further before being announced.
TAMWORTH OZTAG
SEASON STATUS: NOT CANCELLED
The senior oztag season will have one last chance to finish the season.
If community sport is allowed after September 10, a top four finals series will be held but a lockdown extension would see the end of the season cancelled.
Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
