WITH sporting clubs getting back into their usual routine after two COVID-interrupted seasons, the impact on player participation is now being realised with regional Local Government Areas (LGAs) suffering most.

A new study has concluded that the multiple COVID lockdowns preventing sport from being played had a severe impact, with Victoria and in particular, regional Victoria, the hardest hit.

The study compared 2019 player registrations with numbers 12 months later across each of the state’s LGA’s recording varying deductions.

It included a variety of sports including individual and team sports, and used data from AFL Victoria, Australian Sailing (Victoria), Basketball Victoria, Cricket Victoria, Football Victoria, Tennis Victoria, Gymnastics Victoria, Hockey Victoria, Netball Victoria, Swimming Victoria, Golf Victoria and Bowls Victoria,

Both the golf and bowls governing bodies did not provide 2019 information to the researchers, but the high base of participation across the three local LGAs, Glenelg, Moyne and Southern Grampians, held them in good stead.

Glenelg was the only one of the three not ranked in the top 10 regional LGAs for participation, sitting 16th with 19.8 per cent of the population registered to play sport.

By 2020, that number had dropped to 10.18 per cent, nearly a 50 per cent drop.

Moyne was number seven in regional Victoria in 2019 with 24.82 per cent, dropped to 15.44 per cent after the onset of the pandemic.

Southern Grampians had the smallest reduction, losing 6.73 per cent and rising from number six in the regional ranks to second with 19 per cent.

The study doesn’t go into any further depth about which sports were impacted the most in each LGA, but there was a separate study done showing a 92 per cent drop in bowls participation in pre-COVID v COVID numbers, while cricket saw an 81 per cent drop, swimming experienced an 80 per cent drop and netball suffered a 77 per cent reduction.

Run/jog was the biggest increase at 36 per cent.

South West District Football Netball League media officer, Susie Holcombe said the numbers were starting to bounce back, but are still not to the 2019 levels.

“The numbers have increased from last year, but they still aren’t pre-COVID rate,” she said.

“There are still a couple of clubs which haven’t been able to field all teams, but there has been a definite increase from 2021.”

Buloke Shire was ranked number 1 in 2019 with 31.04 per cent, dropping to just 13.33 per cent in 2020, while Queenscliffe was ranked second with 29.64 per cent and has moved into the top rank with 20.64 per cent participation.