Hi Saints,
Over the last week we have received more information about the 2020 season.
There is a plan for a staged return to football, which is great news.
The first thing that must happen for a team to return to training is that the team needs to ensure it has an officially registered Coach and Manager.
If you haven’t yet then please register here ASAP to volunteer for the Leichhardt Saints.
All volunteer Coaches and Managers of Junior teams will need to enter their valid Working with Children Check.
Return to Training
At this stage, the lifting of restrictions relates to training only, and so the return to football is as follows:
- Training only – no games (either trial games or small games during training sessions)
- Non-contact drills only (e.g. fitness, dribbling, passing, shooting drills)
- Minimal handling of the ball (throw-ins & goal keeper drills are discouraged)
- Only 10 people including the coach to be in each training area (1/4 pitch)
- No additional people attending training (parents to drop their children off and wait in the car or similar)
- No sharing of bibs
- No sharing of water bottles, no spitting
Some of these restrictions (particularly the number of players in an a training area) are not simple to accommodate, but we are proceeding with planning using the current guidelines.
It is highly likely that Under 6 and Under 7 training will commence later than the older Age Groups.
We are also anticipating additional requirements will be needed and we will be relying on Coaches & Managers to ensure these are followed:
- Attendance records will be kept for all training sessions
- Training during this period will be voluntary for all participants – we understand that there will be some players/parents who will not be willing to train
- No one is to attend training if they have any Cold or Flu symptoms
- Anyone who is awaiting the results of a COVID19 test or have had close contact with someone awaiting a COVID19 test is not to attend training
- No one is to attend training if they have returned from overseas in the previous 2 weeks
- Training will finish early to ensure there is no cross-over between teams
- Players will need to arrive prepared to train (i.e. fully kitted out) in club merchandise where possible.
Failure to follow all of the above guidelines will result in fines and possible suspensions from Leichhardt Saints and the CDSFA.
Refund Requests
Please note that at this stage we are NOT processing requests for refunds.
We understand that there will be some requests to deregister for various reasons and while we will respect the right of people to seek to deregister we cannot process refunds until we know what our liabilities are to Football NSW and the CDSFA.