Athersley Rec manager Shane Kelsey reckons leagues should award 3-0 wins to the opposition team if clubs cannot field sides, to help prevent a third season being curtailed.
Major concerns over the viability of the 2021/22 campaign are growing because of the number of pre-season friendlies being postponed across the country due to positive test results and isolations.
Rugby League’s Super League award 24-0 victories if their clubs cannot raise a team and Kelsey believes the idea has merits.
“I just see disruption, I can’t see anything else and I see teams using it (positive tests and isolations) as an excuse to call games off (when the season starts),” Kelsey told Non League Yorkshire.
“We’re seeing (friendly) games getting called off now and teams scrambling around to get (friendly) games.
“I don’t think we’re in any far better situation than we were this time last year.
“I think if you ask every manager, they’ll say you can’t plan ahead and you have to have a plan a, plan b and a plan c with the way it is going.
“I’m optimistic the season will start on the 31st July, but nothing surprises me anymore.
“What they are going to have do is award 3-0 wins if teams can’t play (because of isolations or positive cases).
“What we can’t have is a third season going the way of the previous two. Lads are already beginning to lose interest.
“That (3-0 win rule) would stop postponements where clubs have had covid or isolations in the camp, but not to the extend they can’t field a side.
“I’m an advocate for it (3-0 wins), we’ve got to get it moving again.”
Athersley won their first pre-season friendly on Saturday after beating Shirebrook Town 2-0.
Kelsey’s Toolstation NCEL Premier Division squad is starting to be unveiled as players have now been registered.
Young centre-half Dale Brettoner – who was the toast of Barnsley last month after marking Grantham Town sharp-shooter Sam Srivens out of the Rec Reserves’ Memorial Cup triumph over Silkstone United – has signed.
Jack Briscoe is back, as is young striker Ashley Mills. Former Worsbrough Bridge midfielder Mark Stuart has joined.
Although he has older heads coming in, Kelsey is sticking his long-term youth policy of giving talented youngsters a chance to shine.
“We can be a launchpad or stepping stone for players,” he said.
“What I tell them that it is alright playing for a team at the top end of the league, but you’re only relevant if you’re on the pitch.
“With teams like us players have the perfect opportunity to get on the pitch.
“We’re perfect for 18 or 19-year-old lads who if someone said ‘what experience have you got lad’, they would be able to say ‘I’ve got 50 or 60 games under my belt in the NCEL Premier’.
“You’ve watched NCEL for a long time and not many youngsters at 18 or 19-year-old can hold their hand up and say they’ve done that.”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams.
Our work is playing an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
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