The inaugural Headspace Tamworth Charity Football Event has been locked in for December 4, as the focus now also turns to the kick-off of local summer football following the resumption of community sport from its COVID-hiatus.
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Nominations are currently open for the Tamworth youth and senior summer football, and junior futsal, competitions.
All summer football will now be played on the Friday afternoon/night timeslot it has since it began after the state government last week updated the Public Health Order to allow 1000 people to gather for outdoor community sport events.
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It had originally been capped at only 200, creating plenty of logistical headaches for Northern Inland Regional Coordinator Toby McVey to try and work all the games in within the capacity limit.
He had split up the competitions with the seniors (mixed, women and men) to be played on Tuesday night and the youth (under-12s, 14s and 16s) on Friday.
As it is now both will kick-off on Friday November 5 and run through to December 17.
"It makes planning and organising a lot easier," McVey said.
"It's not as strict and stringent."
As of last Thursday, there had been 30 team nominations.
"Last year we had 55 (that was capped)," McVey said.
"Hopefully in the next week we'll see a pick-up."
He anticipates numbers will probably be down a bit due to the vaccination stipulations with any players 16 and over having to be double vaxxed to participate.
Played under modified rules, the seven-a-side competition is designed as an introduction to the game and is a "very social evening", McVey said.
Nominations close 4pm this Friday (October 29).
The futsal competition, which is for primary-aged players and is played at the Sports Dome will start on Monday November 1.
Preparations are also back in full swing for the Headspace charity event, which was originally scheduled to be held on October 9 but had to be postponed.
The brainchild of Dean Hoy, it will be still played at Ken Chillingworth Oval.
"They've (Pirates) been very good, keeping the field prepared for us," McVey said.
It is shaping to be a big day.
"All the private boxes were silent auctioned off. They'll be full, which is good," he said.
The sides for the two feature games - the Ladies All Stars and Old Boys v Young Guns had been selected prior to the event being put on hold. McVey said the majority have reconfirmed their availability for the new date.
The ladies game is set to kick-off at 5pm with the men following at 7.30pm.
