HIS goal is to see the revived Western Premier League competition played out in its entirety, but before any decision on the remainder of the 2020 season is made Andrew Fearnley needs more clarity.
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The future of that competition, and others run under the Western Football banner, were thrust into doubt following a recommendation from NSW Health to "cease activities that result in mixing of participants from different regions, for example by ceasing zone, regional or state championships or competitions."
Sporting bodies were asked to implement the recommendations by Wednesday, but on Tuesday regional development manager Fearnley said he was waiting on Football NSW's lead before making any decisions.
"The CEO and the legal guys and the heads of departments will determine Football NSW's position," he said.
The Western Premier League involves seven teams from across the region - Panorama from Bathurst, Lithgow, Parkes, Dubbo outfits Bulls, Macquarie United and Orana Spurs plus Barnestoneworth FC from Orange.
Thus far eight of 14 planned rounds have been completed.
"Look any football that gets stopped from this point will be a shame. We're seeking some clarification around where we stand with Western Premier League, I don't know how long that's going to take," Fearnley said.
"Ideally we'd like to be able to finish it, we've just got to get further info before we make that decision.
"There are some things we know we can make decision on ourselves, but we still need to go through the process of getting that info. When we get that, then we can go through the process of what we can and can't do over a range of competitions.
"We need some clarity in terms of what a zone is, what a region is, what is going to be permissible and what's not. So Football NSW will obviously lead that process with NSW Health and the office of sport to try and get some more clarity.
"We can't really make strong decisions without a little bit more info. Then we've obviously got to consider the recommendations ourselves in terms of what we do with competitions that we're running.
"We still have Western Youth League with a weekend to go in Orange as well. So before we make a determination over what we do with that, again we need more clarity around what is a zone and what is a region."
While Fearnley said Western's member associations - such as Bathurst District Football - will be able to make their own decisions on their own competitions, they are also seeking more clarity.
"There's going to be lot of different circumstances, for example in Bathurst does it involve allowing Lithgow to keep playing or not? We don't have the answers to that yet. They will have to consider that individually," Fearnley said.
"Orange would have to make some considerations around what happens to Millthorpe, Blayney, then what does Dubbo do with Wellington?"
