THE future of this year's Group Three Rugby League competition is now 'up in the air' according to group chairman Wayne Bridge.
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He said on Wednesday when it was announced the lockdown in regional NSW would be extended until Saturday, August 28.
The group had hoped to play all of this weekend's fixtures on Sunday, but these have now been cancelled.
Mr Bridge admits that even if the lockdown is lifted on Saturday, August 28, there would be logistical problems, including ground availability and referee numbers, to contend with before matches next weekend's scheduled round could go ahead on the Sunday. This is the last round of the competition-proper.
Mr Bridge confirmed that the clubs will share the points from this weekend's games. These were originally deferred from July 10 and 11 due to wet weather.
The Group Three grand final is scheduled for Sunday, September 26, with semi-finals to start on September 4 and 5 involving five teams.
"We won't be extending the season by a week because it would clash with the NRL grand final,'' Mr Bridge said.
He said that playing a four team semi-final series over a fortnight, where first meets fourth and second plays third on the opening week, with the two winners to then meet in the grand final, is a possibility if time permits.
As the ladder stands now Wauchope would meet Port City in one game with Old Bar tackling Port Macquarie in the other.
The grand final would be at Wauchope even if the two Port sides qualified as Port Macquarie Regional Stadium is being used as a COVID-19 testing clinic.
"That would at least give us a premier and the winning teams wouldn't be disadvantaged by having a further week off,'' Mr Bridge said.
"But it's all up in the air at this stage.''
Old Bar hasn't played a match since beating Port City on July 31 due to problems caused by the lockdown.
The game against Taree City didn't go ahead on August 7 as the Bulls had players unavailable due to the Newcastle lockdown restrictions while last Saturday's encounter against Port Macquarie was cancelled.
"We'll be guided by advice from the State government and the NSWRL,'' Mr Bridge added.
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