Saturday marks the day AFL would have returned to fields around the North West.
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There's always an air of excitement, and a sprinkling of nerves, as players prepare for the first round but not today.
As the coronavirus situation continues, the AFL North West season is on ice for now.
The Gunnedah Bulldogs would have kick-started their title defence with one of the toughest road trips in the AFL North West - to Inverell to face the Saints.
Instead, the Dogs will be adhering to the coronavirus measures put in place by the government along with fellow footballers right across the country.
Gunnedah coach Doug Meagher would like nothing more than to have his players hit the pitch but understands there are bigger things at play.
"It's obvious that communities in the country rely on sport for social, physical and mental wellbeing and without it, it takes a lot away from people - no matter what the code," Meagher said.
"There's a lot I'd like to do but the government won't let us at the moment.
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He added: "We have to be reliant on the medical advice."
For the club as a whole, 2020 shapes to be a monumental one if football goes ahead.
Gunnedah had put squads together for the women's and under 14s competitions to bolster the club's total teams from one to three.
"The fact that we're not playing, full stop, is the biggest thing. We worked really hard to establish a women's team. The last training before we shut down, we had 18-20 players who had expressed interest or attended training," Meagher said.
"We were very confident. We organised a trial game against the Kangaroos. Just to teach the women how to play the game a bit more.
"In the under 14s, we were again reasonably confident.
"We regularly had 14-15 at training and we'd planned to go into schools and do some clinics.
"Of those under 14s, they were only boys, so we hoped we'd be able to recruit a couple young women to play."
Meagher remains hopeful a season of some description will go ahead in 2020. Until then, the playing group was keeping in contact via social media.
"We've got a group chat, it's a way of seeing how guys are and just keeping track of them," he said.
