Bundaberg Touch Football touched down Tuesday night with more than 25 teams returning from a four-month COVID hiatus.
Bundaberg Touch Association president, David Field, said it was an action-packed night and that players and officials were grateful for the games return.
“It was a great night and we had a really good showing of teams that returned for the first game back and we kicked off at six o’clock with our master’s and mixed divisions.”
“While it was just the seniors playing, there were around 28 teams and potentially 350 people that participated on the Tuesday night.”
The return to play has come with several COVID related guidelines, including no spectators.
“We’ve modified times to allow people to move on and off the site so there’s five minutes to leave and 10 minutes before the next game, which minimises cross over between people,” David said.
“There were no spectators at Tuesday night’s games, so we just purely had the players and officials, but as restrictions ease this may change.”
The changes and lack of spectators certainly didn’t deter the players though, who David said were just happy to be back.
“It’s great to see the return to sport,” he said.
“For most people they’ve maintained some level of fitness, but the first game after four months is always a bit hard and there was a bit of heavy breathing.”
COVID rules are not the only ones in force and David said players were also still getting used to new rule changes.
“This year, at the start of the season there was an introduction of updated rules and the players only had just started to get their heads around that when we had to stop play.”
“There will be some re-education around the new rules, which is mainly terminology, but also aligns the game more with an NRL environment,” he said.
While juniors are yet to take to the field, the association was discussing a start date.
Though, depending on circumstances, that may change.
“We have been receiving enquiries about our junior season, which will only start in October, but we’ll make a decision around that in late August in regards to how that may look.”
Touch Football results:
In Tuesday night’s game of Touch, the Shalom PRD (12) defeated Womens QNZLDer’s (1), and Weekes Property Co (9) defeated Allstars (2).
In the Mens, QNZLDer K (7) defeated QNZLDer H (6), and Ankle Bullies (8) defeated Titans (6).
In the Masters ,NADS (3) defeated Loggerheads (1), Lawngrubs (6) defeated Show Us Your Td’s (2), and Hot Crab (6) defeated Spartan Touch (5).
In Mixed division 1, QNZLDer Maroon (8) defeated QNZLDer Black (4), Fence sitter (7) defeated QNZLDer White (4), and Bundy Renegade (7) defeated Titans Mixed (3).
In Mixed division 2, QNZLDer mixed ties with Titanic and Grasshoppers (8) defeated Touch N Go (2).
