Northern NSW Football are exploring the possibility of extending the National Premier Leagues men's season to accommodate what general manager football operations Liam Bentley described as an "unprecedented" number of wash-outs.
As the competition approaches round six this weekend, some teams have played just once due to wet grounds. And, with more rain forecast for this week, the trend could continue.
"We're trying to be realistic," Bentley said. "We've had four or five weeks now where the weather has affected fixtures, so it's certainly an option - to try and put in an extra weekend catch-up round.
"We know the impact it has on club volunteers and club canteens when you have split games over Tuesday and Wednesday nights and the like compared to weekend matches, so we're having a look this week but it certainly is on the table as an option."
Bentley said the league would take into account the timing of finals of their other premier competitions, which are generally staggered to feature championship matches on different weekends.
"If we were going to do it, we'd still want to keep the last round [of NPL] altogether at the same time, so we'd probably squeeze it in some time in the second half of the season and push a few rounds back," he said.
A spare weekend was left in the draw on July 30-31. It is now being used to play washed-out round-one matches. So far, the NPL men's competition has been the most affected of NNSWF premier leagues.
