Warrnambool and District Hockey Association preparing to return to playing

WDHA secretary Mark Bridge said the association had received a resounding yes from its members about juniors returning to their Albert Park home in early November.

"We are keen to get that started but we are waiting on pitch maintenance to take place before we kick off," he said.

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"With the AstroTurf and the water and rain combined with the ground not being used and algae has grown on it so once it is a bit safer we will return to some junior training and hopefully some competitions.

"We are hoping to begin early November as we can't get onto the field until the 20th of October.

"Then we will try and get some open training sessions on Wednesday nights and see whoever turns up for a hit grow.

"Then we will look at a small summer comp and play that until march when our winter season starts.

"We have also been talking to Ballarat about getting an interleague round robin competition going towards the end of the year so we can also play against someone different as we missed out on our inter-association competitions in Melbourne this year."

The association cancelled its winter season in August when the state re-entered stage three lockdowns.

Regional Victoria is now in step three of the coronavirus re-opening roadmap which allows outdoor sport (contact and non-contact) can resume for people aged 18 and under.

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