Wet Weather & Washed Out Games update from NSFA

Letter from Ed Ferguson

CEO NSFA

Dear Clubs,

As we enter Round 6 of the season, we have been significantly disrupted by the wet weather causing some teams to have played as few as one or two matches this season.

The unprecedented amount of rainfall since March has resulted in many Council grass turf fields closed over the past 10 weeks. We understand there is a lot of frustration within the football community due to the inability to train or play.

We have worked very closely with all Councils, and they share in our disappointment at the regular Friday communication that fixtures have been cancelled and grounds closed for another weekend. All five Councils have experienced the same challenges with waterlogged fields being unable to be mowed, in some cases dry out to a suitable level and for field preparation to occur. The various Councils are doing their part and we have seen Council staff find alternative ways to ensure our fields are fit to play such as whipper snipping and hand-mowing fields compared to their usual tractors and ride-on mowers. We recognise this information will not stop the disappointed calls from members, however I hope they can acknowledge that Clubs, NSFA and Councils are doing what is within their power to ready fields for football.

Within the NSFA Competitions calendar we build in wet weather weekends and spare opportunities for rounds to be played. We have rescheduled all postponed Round 1 fixtures to Monday 13th June (Queens Birthday public holiday) for Senior Men and Women. This was communicated last week. We intend to reschedule other postponed fixtures to the scheduled wet weather weekend, August 5-8th. These will be updated in DRIBL.

Looking ahead, we will reschedule matches that have been impacted by the wet weather and been postponed over remaining rounds. Please take this as notice that all NSFA teams must be prepared to play matches from 6pm on Friday evening to 3pm on Sunday afternoon. In the case that teams cannot participate in their rescheduled fixture we will rely on Clubs to make midweek slots available for midweek matches under floodlights.

Unlike other Associations, we have ensured that every available slot of every available ground has a fixture being played each weekend. We are thankful for the DRIBL system in this regard that has allowed efficient communication of these changes to Clubs, teams, players and referees. In the future we will continue to reschedule matches as grounds are closed as we want as many people on the park as possible.

Last week many MiniRoos matches began to be scheduled into the early afternoon on Saturday. We will increasingly look to do this to ensure MiniRoos matches are played on available pitches. We understand this may be seen as an inconvenience to some parents, however our priority is getting football on the park, and this must occur for us to achieve this.

The NSFA will not be considering refunds for this season due to wet weather. As stated above, we will reschedule all possible fixtures and work with teams and clubs to ensure matches are fulfilled and our season ends appropriately.

In the first instance, wet weather rounds will be used for rescheduled fixtures.

In the second instance, final series will be sacrificed to ensure the division is completed (ie. Home and away match for each team).

We will work with Clubs to arrange midweek fixtures were possible. Thank you to those Clubs that have already highlighted grounds that NSFA could use from June onwards.

If the above cannot be achieved, we will aim to have all teams finishing on equal matches.

I have been encouraged to hear some Clubs plan to deliver internal-club MiniRoos gala days for teams at training to maximise game time. This is a great idea and encouraged, along with using the school holidays wisely.

In anticipation of fields being washed out moving forwards, we encourage Clubs to seek alternative venues to train such as tennis courts, scout halls and other suitable sites. This has been done in the past and Councils are open to this occurring again.

We encourage Clubs to be transparent and respectful to their members when communicating the future of the season. I believe we are all pushing in the same direction however need patience as we once again deal with matters well outside of our control.