Thousands of community sport participants in the Hunter hope to be given the go ahead to begin the winter season in July.
The chances of this happening are reliant on the NSW government lifting restrictions around the COVID-19 crisis, amid concern about health and safety and the possibility of a winter coronavirus outbreak.
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Nevertheless, the progressive reduction in COVID-19 cases in the Hunter and across the nation has raised hopes that winter sport could be held this season.
The football and netball codes are preparing for this prospect, while awaiting the next NSW government decision on the matter.
Community sport was suspended on March 31 under a NSW public health order on gatherings and movement.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday that the national cabinet of state and territory leaders agreed to develop principles for sport and recreation to get consistency across the country.
"That is an important body of work that now has to be done and I don't want to pre-empt any of that," he said.
The sport and recreation guidelines will be different for professional and elite sport, competitive community sport and individual activity.
"We want to get back to a place where that can happen and we can have the confidence to do it safely," he said.
"And we want to do that as soon as we can."
Mr Morrison warned that "when we take further steps to ease restrictions, we will continue to see outbreaks".
"What matters is being able to move on them quickly, to identify them."
University of Newcastle conjoint senior lecturer and epidemiologist, Beverley Paterson, said community team-based sports were often close-contact sports.
"We would need to be very certain that there was no community transmission happening - no new cases for at least 28 days before these sports could be held again," said Dr Paterson, who is advising a foreign government on its COVID-19 response.
Because community sport involves close contact among teams, she believed it was "likely to be some of the last restrictions to be lifted".
"We also don't know what the impact of winter will be on cases - some research suggests that the virus survives longer in cool, wet conditions and we're going into winter. Winter sports might be pushing our luck too far," she said.
"It only takes one case to make [more than] 2 million cases."
Despite the progress made in suppressing the coronavirus, Australia faces a permanent risk of further waves of COVID-19 cases that could surge at any time.
About 30,000 people - including 18,000 juniors - play soccer in the Hunter Region. Netball in the Hunter includes about 11,200 juniors and 3800 seniors. Thousands more play rugby league, AFL, hockey and rugby union.
Northern NSW Football CEO David Eland said football was eyeing a return in early July.
"We will only return to the field when it's safe and when we have the permission of the relevant health authorities," Mr Eland said.
He had written to councils seeking an extension to the winter season to the end of October.
"We're prepared to work with summer sports to see if we can work together to extend the winter season," he said.
"It requires co-operation all around. Clearly we're in unprecedented times."
Lambton Jaffas secretary Jenny Bailey said players and administrators were missing football.
"It'd be good for everyone to get out there and have a bit of exercise, but we have to stay safe," Ms Bailey said.
Lambton Jaffas under 11s coach Greg Dixon said his team would love to have any time on the park this season.
"They'd be so excited to see each other. They love playing soccer together," Mr Dixon said.
In March, before the lockdown, the NSW Minister for Sport issued guidelines under which community sport could proceed.
Mr Dixon said these guidelines, which include no handshakes or celebrations and social distancing as much as possible, could be followed at games.
"Parents can easily be spread out," he said.
"If we return to any level of competition, it'd be no more risk than the decision in regards to schools."
He said kids would be advised against things like "grabbing or wrestling" and half-time team oranges would be out.
Newcastle Netball Association president Cheryl Hernando said netball was planning a July 18 start, depending on government orders.
Ms Hernando said the netball season would have ordinarily finished on September 5, but plans had been made to extend the season to September 19.
"That's taking into account summer sports that would be wanting to start. We're mindful of that. A lot of our members do other sports as well," Ms Hernando said.
The sporting codes are eagerly awaiting government decisions on whether restrictions on community sport will be eased.
Ms Hernando said if the government rejected a start to the season in July, the netball governing bodies at state and national level would consider refunding registration fees to the associations.
"The last possible start date for competition would appear to be July 18. That's the pivotal one. Anything past there wouldn't work," she said.
She said netballers were keen to get on the court. But if sport can't be played this season, she said: "I think everyone understands".
"At the end of the day, we want everyone to be safe and healthy. If we don't play this year, we'll look at making next year bigger and better, assuming we can get on the court then," she said.
NSW Rugby League chief executive David Trodden said he was planning to start the junior and senior season in the Hunter and across NSW on July 18, which coincides with the end of the next school holidays
"There's a public health order that expires on June 29. That's only been in place for one month," Mr Trodden said.
"I think most people would say that the positive results [in reducing coronavirus cases] that have been achieved in one month are really encouraging.
"If we keep improving at the same rate, I think the expectation would be that the government will probably relax the restrictions sufficient to allow us to start playing footy."
Mr Trodden said his organisation had "set a date to work towards to give ourselves plenty of time for things to continue to improve".
"You don't want to be irresponsible about it. We're not saying we'll definitely start competitions on July 18. But you've got to have a plan. We don't want to play competitions if it's not absolutely safe to do so."
He encouraged clubs to continue to take registrations "beyond the traditional June 30 registration cut-off date".
"The idea is to get people playing, not to stop people playing," he said.
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