Tamworth Oztag preparing for kick-off to summer season

The government's announcement this week that community sport can resume when the state hits the 80 per cent double vaccination mark, has Potts now busily preparing for a kick-off possibly later this month or early next month.

Going off the indications of when the milestone is expected to be reached, she is aiming at a start date of the week of October 25, or the following week, working on a one-two week turnaround once the 'freedom date' is set to get everything in place.

"If we can get a start then, we should get the full 12 round comp in," Potts said.

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At the 25th they would only be losing a couple of weeks with the summer competitions originally slated to kick-off starting the 11th.

To accommodate for that they have already decided to reduce the finals series back from three weeks to two.

Of course, as Potts pointed out, that is all pending vaccination rates.

They are also still waiting for approval from council.

There is she knows, a lot of work ahead, but she said they are just "stoked" to be getting a start. For a while, she admitted, that didn't look like it was going to happen.

One of the provisions for community sport to resume is that participants 16 and over will have to be double vaccinated, or have a medical exemption.

In accordance with that, anyone that wants to play from the kick-off date will have to be 'double vaxxed' Potts said.

"We will reduce the cost for any players that aren't vaxxed and want to come in on December 1," she added.

The double vax provision also includes spectators, referees and any staff.

"It's going to be logistically a nightmare that first month making sure everyone is double vaxxed, and making sure the spectators that turn up are double vaxxed," Potts admitted.

"I'm still working through the process of how we are going to do that."

Other than that a lot of the other systems are already in place such as QR codes and a COVID-safety plan.

"We've just got to update that to suit this next stage," she said.

"We're all just going to have to cooperate with each other."

"It'll be a case of getting on board and getting through this first month."

She said some regions were choosing to delay their start until December but they wanted to "do the best we can to provide them with a full comp".

That may mean some teams might have to scrounge around for a few more players to get them through that first month, but Potts isn't expecting their numbers to be affected too much.

They have asked for nominations but that was more to gauge interest.

"Once we have confirmation of that 80 per cent, once that's been hit, we'll say to everyone get on (online) and pay," she said.

Once the teams are finalised she'll then start working on the draws.

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