BDSFA Round 16 Update - 22nd - 24th August 2025

We have today been informed by council that fields will unsurprisingly remain closed for the weekend. Many clubs had already informed us that their field would be closed for the weekend and potentially an extended period. With finals due to begin next weekend, the decision has been made to unfortunately cancel this round of fixtures for all age groups excluding Men's and Women's Premier League. We took great pride in being able to complete all scheduled rounds in 2024 but the wettest August in 27 years has meant fields have become unplayable with no time for catchups. We are under an incredibly tight timeframe for finals with the return of fields to council, the beginning of FNSW champion of champions and other events planned by external groups throughout the Blacktown International Sportspark meaning we are unable to postpone the grand final weekend.

Dribl Notification

Washout Cancelled notifications will be sent via Dribl later tonight to ensure teams are aware of the washouts.

Ladders

All points ladders will be finalised throughout tomorrow. Finalists will be determined using the average method (points/games played), followed by goal difference and finally number of goals scored. We acknowledge that this situation creates many "what ifs" with teams maybe needing just one more win to make finals or falling behind by just one goal, this is an unfortunate consequence of the amount of rain we have experienced. These ladders will be confirmed ASAP and the board given the opportunity to declare the finals series

Forfeits within the last four calendar dated rounds will still deem a team ineligible, with very few exceptions who played more recent catch ups, this is forfeits in rounds 15, 16, 17 and 18. The cancelled round does not result in round 14 being included in the last four calendar dated rounds.

Impact on Suspensions

As this round has been cancelled, under section 15.8 of the BDSFA Grievance and Disciplinary Regulations, any player who's team was scheduled to play this weekend but is currently serving a suspension will have a game listed as served on their suspension. This is a manual process for each individual so please allow time for us to action this. Suspended players scheduled for a bye or not scheduled to play will not have a game counted towards the suspension. We do not wish for cancelled games to result in players serving longer suspensions.

Semi Finals

On Monday and Tuesday of next week we will be assessing fields for the semi finals. It is acknowledged that some may need most of the week to dry but these early inspections will allow for alternate arrangements to be made where a field may no longer be suitable. The intention is still to proceed as previously communicated with 1v4 and 2v3 semi finals. We will continue to monitor the availability of fields and make adjustments where necessary.

This does not impact the Laing and Simmons BDSFA Men's Premier League or Women's Premier League who are already in their final series and being played on synthetic surfaces. We greatly appreciate the assistance of Prospect United in securing an additional synthetic field this weekend to allow all of these matches to be played.