Canberra Covid case causes sporting chaos

Local officials have been left scrambling to deal with the repercussions of Canberra's first coronavirus case since July of 2020, with most leagues on the verge of finals series.

It follows on from a wet winter, which has already wreaked havoc through sport in the ACT through multiple ground closures causing a swag of abandoned fixtures.

Some sports have opted to cancel all matches this weekend, while others are hoping to postpone scheduled fixtures.

Soccer, rugby union and netball are aiming to postpone this weekend's games, banking on Canberra's snap lockdown to only last seven days.

Hockey on the other hand have made the decision to abandon all fixtures this weekend, without attempting to replay them in the future, while rugby league looks likely to follow the same path.

AFL Canberra, meanwhile, has sent out a short survey to its junior clubs who were set to play their first week of finals this weekend. They'll await survey responses before making a decision about how junior and senior leagues proceed.

Competition manager Firas Shahin hoped to provide a further update to clubs early next week.

"We haven't done too much at the moment, it's just been reactive mode but we're about to start a proactive approach and start planning about what we can do with different scenarios," Shahin said.

"We've sent out comms [communications] to our clubs and encouraged them to stay safe and follow the protocols. We'll wait until the clubs come back with their feedback to our survey and then that's what we will know exactly what we can work with and what we can't."

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Rugby union will aim to postpone this weekend's fixtures, most crucially its final John I Dent Cup round which has a major bearing on the make up of its finals series.

That league has a pre-finals bye round next weekend which it could potentially use to make up a missed competition round.

Only the Southern Inland competition in Wagga will go ahead as planned.

"We will release a revised schedule for the final rounds of the John I Dent Cup and the Premiers 15 when we can," an ACT Rugby spokesperson said.

The Canberra Raiders Cup will lose at least one entire round, while all junior rugby league will be abandoned during the lockdown.

That's despite a high number of NSW-based clubs scattered throughout the senior and junior competitions.

"There's just so much cross pollination, even in the George Tooke [Shield], three games involve Canberra teams which would involve either a regional team coming into Canberra or a Canberra team going to the region so they're unplayable," league boss Mark Vergano said.

"All match play and training is off for the next seven days. It's a blunt instrument but we had to for the integrity of the competition, so it's all games within the ACT and across the region.

"The committee will decide that once we've had an opportunity to meet by zoom and make some determinations around some aspects of the competition we need to address and then further, getting into the finals, cos we're only two or three weeks away from the finals series."

Capital Football boss Phil Brown has suspended all play and training for the next seven days, and was hopeful competition could resume next weekend.

League officials were planning to reschedule this weekend's lost fixtures at a later date.

"We will provide further updates next week ... once more is known from the ACT government about the public health order," Brown said via a Facebook video.

"Please everyone, let's follow the Public Health Order and get back on the park as soon as we can."

Hockey ACT have opted to cancel this weekend's round completely, and plans to resume playing next weekend should the lockdown be lifted.

The league will work closely regional councils including Queanbeyan, Goulburn and Yass to determine what the lockdown means for players from those areas.

"This week's games will be cancelled completely as if the fixture never existed, we are planning to play games next week, in accordance with ACT health advice," Hockey ACT boss Rob Sheekey said.

Netball ACT, meanwhile, were hopeful of postponing this weekend's round of finals for one week.

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