Demons embrace restricted training as they head back toward the field

Joe Knagge, the Demons' club president says that all three sides playing under the Demons' banner have felt the squeeze of the COVID-19 restrictions.

"I think our juniors, with them learning form home and so forth it's been very tough the way the world changed, I know they ran lots of virtual drills and such for the backyard," Knagge said.

READ ALSO:

"Our senior players, men and women, I know there's a number of them that are unfortunately out of work at the moment due to everything that's happened."

Now, however, there is some hope of light at the end of a tunnel, with the teams set to resume training soon.

"I've always been concerned about their well being, getting back on the training track and looking forward to the football season starting again, that's got to be good for all the players and the supporters," Knagge said.

"It puts their mind back on sport, back on footy, it's a great thing, hopefully we can get back to that and put this virus behind us for a while."

While there are still a number of restrictions on exactly how many people can train at once and in what ways in order to limit any possibility of COVID-19 spreading, the Demons are working hard to ensure they meet all the required regulations.

"We're implementing strict procedures around social distancing and hygiene, they'll be in place from the first training run from July 2 on the Tuesday," Knagge said.

"Players will see that we'll be training very differently, but it's all been well thought out, the AFL have done a lot of work in the background so you can go out and train while adhering to social distancing."

Knagge noted that there was a lot of pressure on the sporting communities not to make any mistakes, given how hard everyone had been working to remain safe.

"We've been very lucky as a nation to get back so quickly, the only reason we've been able to do that is by a huge effort from everyone in the community around those rules," Knagge said.

For now, the training will largely be focused on non-contact drills and skills training, with the aim of being ready for a likely season restart in the next few months.

"There won't be any contact training, Dubbo Regional Council has also adopted similar practices, they've gone through all the amenities and made sure they're ready to go," Knagge said.

"I'm hoping we can be playing footy again at the beginning of July and that the season might extend a little, it wouldn't surprise me if we were playing right through September."

"There's still a lot of football ahead of us."