The Magpies trained on Thursday night just hours before Victoria was plunged into its sixth coronavirus-enforced lockdown.

Coach Neville Swayn, who has re-signed for 2022, said the mood was flat on the back of the lockdown announcement but felt the carrot of finals action was keeping his players focused.

Restrictions will currently ease on Thursday pending public health advice. Games scheduled for this weekend are off but could theoretically return in time for Saturday week, likely without crowds.

It means just two Hampden league home and away fixtures are possible prior to finals.

But with clubs all but certain to be barred from training on Thursday evening, it's unclear if matches will resume on August 14.

"We had a fairly good session on Thursday - we trained for about an hour and a half," Swayn told The Standard.

"We had a solid night and basically just said to the boys we'd give them a program to do again over the next week and fingers crossed we're back into it soon."

Swayn said the stop-start nature of the season was draining for players but the club was doing everything to keep spirits high.

"It's just hard on the group. It seems like it's always a Thursday night when we're going into a lockdown," he said.

"Everyone is that flat. It's just here we go again. We've asked a lot of our players this week and we're asking them again - we've got to stop again and with uncertainty we don't know when.

"Everyone is in the same boat."

Cobden coach Adam Courtney, whose side is out of the finals race, said he gave his players the option to train with the under 18s but didn't hold a senior session with lockdown looming at 8pm.

He said he could see the Hampden league skipping the final two rounds and moving straight into finals with the top five in the senior competition all but certain.

"You'd most likely think that'd be the way forward," Courtney said.

"There are some sides that would be close to the five that would miss out (in all grades) but that's why everyone says you've got to win early games."

Courtney said player motivation was tough to maintain in the face of uncertainty around the future.

"Our players have probably - and you can't blame them - dropped the ball over the past couple of weeks because they're unsure with all this stop-start stuff," he said.

"They're just losing a bit of interest. Not being in the five, there's no real drive there.

"Our under 18s have been really good with keeping up training patterns because they're in the five. We had five injuries on the weekend too and it's been tough. It was pretty tough on the players after two training sessions into 120 minutes in the wet. It's pretty hard on them."

Camperdown's final two rounds will include games against Warrnambool and North Warrnambool Eagles, while Cobden could play Hamilton Kangaroos and Port Fairy.

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