COVID-19: Local Tamworth and major regional competitions suspended amid Tamworth lockdown

Group 4 rugby league and Northern Inland Football also moved to temporarily suspend their competitions following the announcement.

The AFL North West had previously announced the postponement of the upcoming weekend's fixtures with the New England Rugby Union taking similar action.

All local local junior and senior competitions have also been suspended with immediate affect.

READ ALSO:

The Tamworth lockdown comes two days after Armidale was put under lockdown orders and has created headaches for administrators with the majority of the competitions either nearing, or set to kick-off, finals.

Central North were a bit on the front foot with the zone executive, following the Armidale lockdown, which resulted in only the Gunnedah v Narrabri fixtures going ahead on the weekend, meeting via Zoom on Sunday morning to map out a plan moving forward.

The plan covered the event of a one-week (Stage 1), two-week (Stage 2) and three-week or longer (Stage 3) lockdown in any LGA within the zone.

CNRU president Paul King had, when the Leader spoke to him, just sent an email out to all of the clubs informing them that they were enacting 'Stage 1' of their procedures.

Under Stage 1, the competition is temporarily suspended and all games pushed back a week.

"The sensible option for us is to pause the competition for now," King said.

All things going well they will play Round 18 on August 21 and the remaining Round 17 fixtures the following weekend.

The temporary pause will push the finals series back a week with the minor and major semi-finals now slated to be played on September 4 and the grand finals on September 18.

Group 4 chairman Terry Psarakis and his board are hopeful the lockdown will finish next Monday and allow them to play Sunday's postponed games on August 21.

"We have postponed this weekend's matches at this stage and hope to replay yesterday's (Sundays) matches on August 21," Psarakis told G4 Media on Monday.

"Our first option is to play those games so at least give everyone the same amount of games."

Half of the weekend's games were played with Narrabri beating Dungowan 56-26 and Moree and Gunnedah playing out a 32-all draw on Saturday before the Sunday games at Boggabri and North Tamworth were called off.

"Then we have to decide whether we play the final round (Round 14) or whether we go straight into the semi-finals," Psarakis added.

However, if the seven-day precautionary lockdown isn't lifted next Monday the G4 Board will have to decide on other options.

"If the lockdown goes any further then we are in trouble (as far as the end of season finals are concerned) and we will need to look at all our options," Psarakis said.

Northern NSW Football Northern Inland Regional Co-Ordinator Toby McVey was meeting with both the local and Premier Division clubs on Monday night.

"We'll have a chat with all the clubs involved in the Tamworth competition and all the Premier Division clubs and go from there," he said.

On a local front, the Tamworth Hockey Association has essentially shut up shop.

"Until the end of the lockdown we'll be cancelling all training and all games (starting on Monday) and the facility will be closed," president Ross Briggs said.

He said at this stage everything is "on hold". If it is only for the week, there may be the capacity to catch-up the games.

All mid-week and weekend netball, minor league, basketball, junior and senior baseball, touch football and oztag has also been suspended.

It's not just sporting competitions that have been affected by the lockdown either.

The Northern Inland Academy of Sports' first Academy Awards night set to be held in Tamworth on Saturday night has been postponed to a date to be advised.

The organisation has also cancelled/postponed all training sessions scheduled over the next seven days.

But it's not all doom and gloom with the Longyard and Tamworth Golf Clubs both remaining open for golf but with additional restrictions.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: