The Maitland Mustangs have called time on their most challenging season of basketball, officially withdrawing from the 2020 Waratah League.
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The Mustangs announced the move online on Friday in the wake of a NSW Health and Office of Sport advice statement recommending regional competition cease.
NSW Basketball had announced it would continue with the season, but both the Mustangs and Newcastle Hunters opted to withdraw.
In a statement the Mustangs said: "Implications of this advice for people living in our region make continuing in the league untenable for our association.
"Maitland Basketball has made the difficult decision to withdraw all senior teams from remainder of the 2020 Spalding Waratah League."
The decision affects the Waratah men's 1, youth men's 1 and youth women's 1 teams. Junior competitions have also been cancelled.
Maitland-based competition will continue under existing Covid-19 biosafety regulations.
Covid-19 first disrupted Maitland's plans back in February when the 2020 competition was put on hold indefinitely and a highly-talented squad assembled had to head home.
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Without their star recruits, the Mustangs concentrated on the development of their youth and had great success with a number of young stars emerging.
Newcastle Basketball said it had withdrawn the Newcastle Hunters teams because it had decided travel to Sydney posed too much risk.
"We want to try our best to keep domestic basketball going for all junior and senior players and we are putting that at risk by sending 20 elite athletes to Sydney," Newcastle Basketball general manager Neil Goffet said.
"We've seen a few cases in Newcastle over the last couple of months that have involved people from Sydney or someone travelling into Sydney, and the government obviously wants this to stop as outlined in their latest recommendations.
"It is a very small price for a few of our best players to pay in order to help stop community transmissions of this disease."
The NSW Health and Office Sport advice recommended
- Cease activities that result in the mixing of participants and staff from different regions, for example by ceasing zone, regional or state championships or competitions*
- Cease any activities that result in overnight stays (e.g. multi-day training camps) due to increased risk of COVID transmission in residential-type settings with shared facilities
- Cease face-to-face social activities relating to community sports (e.g. award ceremonies, end-of-season social gatherings, post-training group dinners)
- Avoid carpools or bus travel with people from different household groups where possible; and
- For local activities, limit spectators to one parent only, where the child requires parental supervision during the sporting activity.
