CLUBS will consider training on even if football seasons in south-west Victoria are cancelled in 2020.
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The Hampden and Warrnambool and District league campaigns are limbo due to the COVID-19 pandemic with players awaiting news on return-to-train protocols.
Players say there is a chance clubs would maintain regular training - once it's reintroduced - even if a decision was made to scrap matches.
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Koroit captain Brett Harrington said the Saints had a discussion Thursday night about their options.
He said there was support for formalised training regardless as a way to stay socially connected.
"We spoke about training as normal on a Thursday night (when allowed) and having a bit of fun and having a feed and do that for the rest of the year, just to keep everyone involved and keep in contact with everyone and make sure they're doing all right," he said. "If there is no footy, they need something to do after work."
Koroit also has ideas for filling in potential football-free Saturdays during winter.
"On the weekends, we spoke about it last night too, having a little competition of basketball or just catching up as a group doing different things," Harrington said.
Harrington, who is keeping busy with eight-month-old daughter Chili and a building course, said he had concerns about a shorter season, which is one of the scenarios being considered.
The Saints are aiming for seven straight flags.
"Personally I don't think nine games is enough to warrant a premiership, that's my opinion," he said.
"If you got say 14 games I'd be happy with that but nine games isn't enough for me.
"If we were to win it again, it just wouldn't feel right. We wouldn't have done enough."
Terang Mortlake co-captain Harry Hobbs, who took on the role at just 20, said a decision on training without games would be a group decision.
"You see what the majority of the players want to do, whether they look at it as a rest year or want keep together and build for next year," he said.
"I think most of the boys would be keen to continue to build for next year but it would be a group decision."
Hobbs said the Bloods had taken initiative with training with adhering to social distancing rules.
"Most of the time we do our stuff individually because we don't want to be seen doing anything as a club or reflect badly on the club," he said.
"Everything has been put back on the players a fair bit. The coaches can't have too much influence on what we do other than give us a few guidelines and training sessions and running sessions.
"It's been up to us to push ourselves a bit.
Panmure assistant coach Paddy Mahony said the Bulldogs players would likely have a discussion about training if the season didn't go ahead.
He said there were pros and cons.
Panmure started pre-season in November and the playing assistant said it would be hard to train all the way through the year without the reward of playing games.
Mahony said some players may not like that while other blokes would be keen to get around each other.
The experienced Bulldog said the group might end up training once a week for a while if there was no season.
With the decision on the return of country footy still up in the air, Mahony is keen to train in a group of up to 10 people.
"Even if non-contact, it's something much better than training by myself," he said.
"A casual kick around with 10 blokes would be great really."
Allansford's Dylan Cross is in favour of training on.
"It would be good to get out of the house and have something to do and keep fitness up so when we go back into pre-season you wouldn't be so far back going into it," he said. "It would give some sort of fitness going into pre-season if it (this season) was cancelled."
Old Collegians' Jacob Brooks said he would "still love it" if he could train with his mates. He said the Warriors had started planning for group-of-10 training for when restrictions were eased.
"We were put into groups a couple of days ago. When we are allowed to train we will go into those small groups," he said. "It's pretty good to get back with footy mates."
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