Wilcannia children have been withdrawn from the Broken Hill soccer competition by their community due to concerns they might catch COVID-19 and put the whole community at risk.
While there are no coronavirus cases in Broken Hill and the NSW Far West, community members and parents decided to take their children out of the competition with five regular season games to go, after pandemic developments in Mildura, NSW and other states.
A local under-10s team, several under-12s players, parents and community members were travelling more than 400 kilometres to the games and back every weekend.
Barkindji elder Ann Currie, who is known as Aunty Dodie in the community and region and helps organise the weekend soccer trips, said if the COVID virus found its way into the community, there would be a big impact.
"They might as well just dig a big hole back home then, just chuck us all in there, if it gets into our community," Aunty Dodie said.
"When I know everything's clear Mildura way, and the borders open, then we'll come back in.
Soccer association supports decision
George Bugeja, the chairman of the Broken Hill Soccer Association, said he supported the community's decision.
"They can only do what they can do and it's better to be safe than sorry," he said.
"We don't want to have any outbreaks here or outbreaks up there.
Mr Bugeja said it would be pretty straightforward to bring the young players back into the competition at a later date.
He said the only impact to the under-10s competition by losing the Wilcannia team was the loss of a bye each week, as there were five teams competing in it.
"If they come back, we'll just go back to what we were doing before," Mr Bugeja said.
Keeping busy in the meantime
Wilcannia resident Justin Harris also helps organise the kids' trips to the Broken Hill games.
He said while they waited for COVID matters to improve, the children were still training at the local youth centre.
"They're still doing soccer. It's just not them coming over to Broken Hill to play the actual games," he said.
Mr Harris said they were also still planning an Adelaide trip for the kids to see a professional soccer game.
"We're going to put that on hold too until we know everything is all settled down," he said.
