The Eagles decided on Friday morning to cancel their round five football and netball matches against Ararat Eagles as the virus swept through the club.

It came two days after Woorndoo-Mortlake made the difficult call to abandon all of its matches against Tatyoon.

Second-year Hawkesdale-Macarthur president Will McDonald said it was not a decision the club made lightly.

"We had an already partially depleted side impacted by COVID through all three grades (seniors, reserves and under 16s) of football and some volunteers," he told The Standard.

"It was only a matter of time before netball was impacted as well and we decided the best thing to do for the health and safety of our players and supporters was to take the week off.

"Hopefully we can re-set and be ready for next week to get started again.

"The numbers only came to light this morning, so we didn't wait until the last minute, and following on from Woorndoo, we decided it was the right thing to do to protect everyone not just our club.

"I am thinking if we bite the bullet early, it should be nipped in the bud early."

Hawkesdale-Macarthur has won one of its first four senior football games and was undefeated in A grade netball.

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