COVID lockdown in Orange, Blayney and Cabonne affecting sport

The lockdown of the Orange, Blayney and Cabonne local government areas has not only affected sides in those regions but has prevented clubs from surrounding centres from taking part in sports this weekend.

All senior and junior matches in the upcoming AFL Central West round were called off, with the Dubbo Demons' Tier 1 and women's side scheduled to play in Orange.

Competition and development co-ordinator for Central West AFL, Casey White, confirmed it will be a cancellation with no points awarded to any side and he is hopeful at this stage the competition can resume on the following weekend.

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"The AFL will continue to monitor the NSW Health advice in order to make a determination on next week's matches, but at this stage we are planning to resume the competition with the next round's matches," he said.

"If clubs are significantly affected post the potential lifting of LGA lockdowns, AFL Central West will work with these clubs in isolation to discuss the potential of match ratio ladders and match postponements if required to allow unaffected games to proceed in future weeks.

"Health and safety to all participants is paramount and we're doing what we think is the right and fair decision, which is to cancel the entire round."

The Western Premier League postponed the Panorama FC versus Barnstoneworth FC immediately on Wednesday morning but by the afternoon a second game was pushed back.

The match at Parkes between the Cobras and Dubbo's Macquarie United will also be postponed given a number of Parkes player work and/or study in the Cabonne region.

The two other planned games will be able to go ahead this Saturday, with the bumper derby clash between Dubbo FC and Orana Spurs headlining the action.

"The Panorama and Barnstoneworth game is deferred at this stage. If the lockdown is extended then we'd need to do some serious looking at it but if it's only these seven days we'll end up getting all our games caught up," Western Premier League manager Peter Mitchell said on Wednesday morning.

All Central West Junior Rugby Union this weekend has been cancelled while a decision on senior matches is expected to be made before Thursday morning.

Two Blowes Clothing Cup matches have already been cancelled as the Orange Emus were scheduled to host the Dubbo Kangaroos and Orange City was set to travel to Forbes to play.

Group 10 was quick to make a call on this weekend's games, announcing on Tuesday night there would be a blanket cancellation on all senior and junior matches while the Mid West Cup preliminary final set down for this weekend was postponed.

All Group 11 rugby league is expected to continue as normal.

Premier League Hockey will also be undergoing discussions before they make a call on what to do with this weekend's men's and women's preliminary final matches.

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