The Adamstown versus Valentine NPL matches this weekend have been postponed after several Rosebud players across senior and youth teams were forced into a 14-day isolation.
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Adamstown president John Connors said three first-grade players attended Wests New Lambton last Sunday night. Bar 88 at Wests New Lambton, on Sunday from 5pm to 7.15pm, was on Thursday added to the venues visited by a confirmed COVID-19 case.
Under government health guidelines, the trio have been instructed to be tested for COVID-19 and serve a 14-day isolation.
Connors said players in their youth and under-18 squads have had to follow the same path because of their connection to schools and the Jets youth program, which are linked to confirmed cases. It forced Adamstown and Northern NSW Football to postpone all of their matches. No positive cases have yet to emerge in the Rosebud ranks.
"There were three first graders who happened to be at a club that boy had attended," Connors said on Friday morning.
"Then we've got a couple of boys in our senior squads who's brothers are in the Jets youth system. Unfortunately, another boy has a brother in the 18s.
"At the moment, they are just connections so they've had to do the test and the 14-day isolation.
"And we have boys in the youth who go to St Pius and some 18s who go to Francis Xavier."
Adamstown youth matches on Monday and Tuesday and their senior matches the following weekend were also in doubt. The first-grade players will not be out of isolation until Monday week and the club has cancelled all training.
"We're just doing one thing at a time at the moment, so we've postponed this weekend," Connors said.
"We've got youth games against Lake Macquarie Monday and Tuesday, so we'll have to reassess it on Monday and wait on results.
"We're hoping to play next weekend, but if they say it's 14 days and we can't, we're not going to break the rules and let them play."
Connors said the three top-grade players now in isolation played against Lake Macquarie in their 2-1 loss on Wednesday night in a round-three catch-up game.
"I've spoken to the three boys who were at Wests on Sunday night and they were there with first graders from other clubs, so you would assume they will be doing the same thing," Connors said.
"But what other clubs do, I don't care. We are just doing what we need to do."
He said Adamstown's SAP teams would play on Saturday because they have had no contact with youth or senior groups at the club.
He called for calm in the local football ranks and for participants to follow Northern NSW Football instructions.
Northern NSW Football's senior officer of premier competitions, Ramsey Vane-Wood, said "all other NPL matches at this stage should be going ahead as scheduled unless we get other advice from other clubs".
As for Adamstown's contact with Lake Macquarie on Wednesday night, he said the Roosters' matches against Edgeworth were still on.
"We are waiting on some advice from the health department to work out whether it was infectious at that point in time," he said.
"Ultimately we are relying on any advice from Hunter-New England and NSW Health, to work out where he was when he was infectious.
"We are still working through that with the parties concerned."
He said Adamstown's first-grade postponement met with regulations created for the delayed start of the NPL season.
"When we redid the regulations earlier in the year, we thought three or more players out was a reasonable number to consider postponing a senior game," Vane-Wood said.
"But it's one of those moving targets at the moment."
As for the potential of other first-grade players in the competition visiting pubs and clubs affected by the COVID-19 case, he said: "It's up the players more or less to hopefully do the right thing and tell the club if they were out and about [at these venues]."
He said New Lambton WPL youth games on Friday night have been cancelled because of players lost to isolation from the school cases. The senior New Lambton WPL matches on the weekend against Olympic were later postponed as well.
Several community clubs had cancelled weekend matches on Friday.
Newcastle Football announced that Cooks Hill, Mayfield Junior MiniRoos, New Lambton ZFL, Adamstown JFC, Stockton FC, Newcastle Grammar FC, Kotara South FC and Merewether UFC had withdrawn from all matches this weekend.
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