Football Bundaberg teams breathed a sigh of relief as they returned to their much-loved game on the pitch this weekend.
Football Bundaberg president Femia Eizema said the teams were excited to get back on the field after the competition was shut down in March due to COVID-19 regulations.
Femia said players, their families and onlookers were all looking forward to shorter but equally as competitive season.
“People have just been waiting, and waiting, to get back to watch some sport, and the players are quite keen,” she said.
“It’s been a great turn out for the first night back. It’s been quite wonderful.”
S.C. Corinthians Football manager Mandy Hall said although the COVID-19 restriction had turned the 2020 season upside down, they were now focusing on the positives and the remaining season should some great goals achieved for all of the Football Bundaberg teams.
“COVID-19 definitely put a bit of a spanner into it, and I know we would have hoped to be further ahead after the season was suspended, but we have things in place and, although it's been delayed we are working forward and it should be a great season,” Mandy said.
“It will be nice to get back to some sort of normal, not just for out sport but all sports in the area.
“We’ve been speaking with parents and they are just so excited to get back to the game.”
Mandy said Football Bundaberg had all the health regulations surrounding COVID-19 in place and she thanked the volunteers for their assistance, and the members for following the guidelines.
“We have been given plenty of information, but I think the thing with COVID-19 is that it is very dynamic and changes very quickly, so you have to adjust very fast,” she said.
“That’s been a challenge, not just for our club but most of the clubs here, we have had to go with the changes and pick up and run with it as best we can.
“When you see your kids, or the players out there now, you can see they started training again only a month ago and they are all very keen, although its been a very busy month – quite hectic.
“When you see that, you think okay time to soldier on and keep going.
“Football is like a big family, and we have still managed to keep the same number of games, but now it's just condensed.”
Football Bundaberg will run in to the summer sport season and is expected to finish at the end of October.
- Earlier report: Football Bundaberg fixtures about to reboot
