Footy, netballers urged to play on

WITH the impacts of COVID-19 expected to be felt for years to come, AFL Central Victoria has launched a new campaign to get football and netball players back out on the field or court.

Known as Play On 2022, the push aims to get “players, coaches, umpires, volunteers, and sponsors to return and reconnect with their community club.”

“Local sporting communities understand the sense of belonging to a local club that has been disjointed during 2020/2021, so it is critical that we reconnect the playing groups, coaches, umpires, and volunteers to promote both football and netball, and return the enjoyment and many benefits of participation,” a statement released by AFL Central Victoria said.

“Following two interrupted seasons, the Play On message is targeted at a variety of local community members, to encourage them to join or reconnect with their local club through volunteering, playing, umpiring, or assisting in general.”

As part of bring people back to the codes, and clubs, the AFL Central Victoria statement said both sports at the local level would be moving towards a new, central online system next year.

Football will start using the PlayHQ, while netball will move to Netball Connect.

In anticipation of the player transfer period starting on 1 February, PlayHQ will replace SportsTG and AFL Central Victoria said the system will, “bring community football leagues, clubs, players, and venues together on a single platform… everything from registrations, payments, fixtures, live scoring, statistics, and competition management.”

Meanwhile Netball Connect will supersede MyNetball.

Run by netball Victoria, it’s described as a “brand-new digital platform, which is being specifically developed for the Victorian netball community.”

“With improved modern technology, it will provide the entire netball family with a much easier user experience to manage, score, play and spectate,” the AFL Central Victoria statement said.