With the news that the footy season has been put on hold until at least the end of May, clubs like the Griffith Swans are facing the real possibility of not playing any football this season.
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Griffith Swans president Jeff Harris sees this as a possibility.
"It has been pushed back to the 31st of May, but it is a forever moving target, and we almost have to entertain the thought of having no season at all," he said.
"You figure a lot has to go right for them for there to be a meaningful season."
There is also the economic impact a lack of football will impose on the club with Harris hoping the AFL would offer some assistance to the clubs who need it.
"They haven't released that information yet, and that is probably a major question mark and will have the biggest impacts on what it means for our bottom line too," he said.
"You would think they would (take a lighter approach), it isn't in anyone's interest to send not-for-profit sporting clubs broke so you figure that will be the case even though it will take a big bucket of money and with the revenue lost to them with the national season going on hold but I think the AFL is better prepared for it than most."
If the stars were to align and there was a season to be played, the Swans president feels that it would need to feature a full round of football at a minimum.
"I don't think any season that didn't have that would have much proper bearing in terms of premierships
"Maybe it's a case of getting experience through players. I talked to one of the coaches this morning and said if we don't get a season up, then we might look to play a bit of a practice match series or something like that at the back end of the year.
"We like many clubs will be getting the boys to do their own training program to keep ticking over while that is possible. Realistically you would need a couple of weeks."
Harris said it was a real shame for the juniors who had been knocking on the door and looked set to get some senior experience this season.
"They are the group that have been staved of a few opportunities with a really successful senior side," he said.
"It would have definitely been big positive to be able to give those kids their senior footy opportunities and experience, but that might have to wait for another year."
The club had also already organised some fundraising events which are now in doubt.
"The knock-on effect is that unfortunately, we had scheduled the big freeze again, we had scheduled an indigenous round to engage with the local indigenous community around mental health issues and things like that," he said.
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