The Tigers were preparing for a qualifying final against Kolora-Noorat on August 21 before the finals series was thrown into limbo with another coronavirus lockdown for regional Victoria.

"For the footy community in general, we're pretty keen to try and get it back," Sobey said.

"The reality is it doesn't look great at the minute.

"I know the league is going to try and provide a bit of a pathway if they can this week.

"We're still trying to keep the morale up just in case there's that opportunity that we can have a crack at it."

Re-signing for 2022 was a no-brainer for Sobey.

"I obviously love the place and have been here 12 years now so am really enjoying taking this next step and trying to educate and help develop all players within the club," he said.

Right from the get-go Sobey has been big on building a strong connection between the seniors, reserves and under 18s.

He's been stoked with the progress of youngsters like midfielder Tate Porter.

"I've been fortunate to have so many good young players," he said.

And he's been to promote under 18s, like wingman Ben Conboy who was one of many who got a taste of seniors this year.

The coach also enjoyed watching the growth of experienced players like Nathan Krepp and Jayden Brooks.

READ MORE:

The Tigers' mentor said he hoped season 2022 wouldn't be as interrupted by the pandemic as 2021.

"We're really looking forward to hopefully having a consistent season and getting a good run at the footy and I'm sure the community is the same," he said.

He reiterated the Tigers had taken great lessons from playing against the competition's top teams.

And he feels the group has a good understanding of how it wants to play now.

Sobey credited the club's leaders across the board for creating a culture people were keen to be part of.

Tigers joint-president Matthew Gleeson feels the announcement couldn't have come at a better time.

"We're trying to keep everyone interested and keep a bit of positivity at the moment and keep everyone rolling along," he said.

Gleeson said Sobey had thrived in his first season as coach.

"With it being such a tough environment, his leadership and how he's kept the whole group interested has been impressive," he said.

"It's probably been an easy thing to drop off but we've still had 30-40 blokes at training every night no worries.

"You wouldn't realise anything was going on (in terms of the coronavirus interruptions) - that's probably down to Josh and his positivity.

"Josh's mindset has been rubbing off on the whole group.

"We managed to have nine out of 10 sides in finals this year across netball and football (juniors and seniors)."

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.