Newcastle Netball Association are planning a revised competition start date of July 18 and will meet next week to discuss how the 2020 season may look.
NNA made the announcement through social media on Wednesday night, following on from an earlier memo issued by Netball NSW outlining the scenario for a restart of netball activities in July. Netball NSW said that guidance will be "further reviewed and confirmed by no later than 1 June 2020 subject to the existing Government advice available".
Newcastle's competition season was originally scheduled to start on March 28 but was postponed, like most sport around the region and country, due to the coronavirus crisis.
Netball NSW chief executive Carolyn Campbell said on Thursday they were "hopeful that community netball will get the opportunity to take the court later this year but only when the government deems it's safe to do so" and issued a proposed July 18 start date to give associations time to prepare for when a "green light comes".
NSW public health orders have restrictions on gathering and movement in place until June 29.
Newcastle Netball Association president Cheryl Hernando said the executive "had a number of options up our sleeve" and will meet next week to discuss "how it could work" with the new proposed date.
While netball has some advantages over other winter sports, Campbell said there were other issues to consider.
That included large numbers gathering at venues like National Park Netball Courts where the Newcastle competition is played.
"These will be the tricky questions ... if some of the restrictions are relaxed, and I don't think it will go back to 100 per cent straight away, how do we then work around that," Campbell said.
"One of the things we've been engaging with our associations, and hopefully then down to the clubs, is what can we do that's different? Using Newcastle as an example, it has fabulous facilities there with lights ... Why can't we play some night games?
"We need to morph into whatever the opportunity presents for us and we're lucky in netball because we haven't got the clash of facilities like some of the grass sports will have, like AFL and soccer and football in general running into cricket and touch. Most are just stand-alone netball courts.
"The morphing into the opportunities will be a challenge for the sport but what a great opportunity too."
Netball NSW released proposed start dates of July 29 and July 27 for Premier League and Metro League respectively. State titles have been slated for October.
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In terms of its financial position the Netball NSW memo released on Wednesday stated:
"The financial model behind the entire netball ecosystem in NSW is the contributions received from community players which flow up from clubs to associations, to Netball NSW and ultimately in part to Netball Australia. Without the flow of at least a portion of those funds in 2020, it will not be possible for Netball NSW to financially withstand the impact of COVID-19 without substantial government support."
A large portion of Netball NSW staff were stood down in March and Campbell said the governing body's best position financially was "to deliver the sport". Cancelling the season would be a worst-case scenario.
Super Netball's start has been delayed until at least June 30 and all contracted players have taken a 70 per cent pay cut for three weeks. Their position will be reviewed at the end of this month.
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