Dubbo Demons are hopeful their season will continue after lockdown

AFLCW made the announcement on Tuesday that they will be going ahead with matches where possible, starting with this Sunday's junior games if the current lockdown ends on schedule.

The committee recently cancelled a full round of the competition when only the Dubbo region was under COVID-19 lockdown orders but if a similar situation unfolds again, where some teams are able to play and others aren't, then any matches that aren't lockdown-affected will still take place.

This Saturday's last round of the senior regular season won't be going ahead but Sunday's opening round of junior finals in Orange are currently pencilled in to take place, pending any updates to public health orders.

Dubbo Demons club president Tom Skinner believes the club is just waiting until the lockdown end date arrives.

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"I supposed it just depends on the advice from state health at the moment," he said.

"We are just playing it by ear and as soon as lockdown finishes hopefully we can continue and will continue.

"Speaking to the other presidents and Casey [White] from the league, we will probably go straight into finals because it is starting to get into the back end of the season."

Skinner is hopeful the season can continue into the finals after all the effort which has gone into the season so far.

"They're hoping to not have to can the season being that it is so late in the season this happened," he said.

"There's been a lot of hard work getting things to where they are now."

AFL Central West development co-ordinator Casey White notified clubs of the decision on Tuesday morning and said there's determination among the clubs to get in any match time possible, when safe to do so.

"We're going to be doing or best to play games when they can be played, following NSW health advice and the public health order," he said.

"Where games are not impacted by stay-at-home or lockdown restrictions we'll be aiming to play them. Where that applies for this weekend, our junior prelims this Sunday will proceed where they can.

"We need to do our best as a league to get games played where possible and give ourselves the best chance of completing seasons."

White said any finals matches played should be seen as a positive for the game in the region.

"It's almost a case of one grand final finished is better than none. If we get seven then that's outstanding," he said.

"That would be a significant achievement, but let's set ourselves some achievable goals first. Let's get one finished, then two and go from there. These players have been working hard all year to finish their seasons, and in trying conditions too.

"We've had rain and ground closures and a lot of relocated matches."

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