It'll only be a short run up for take-off for the North West Falcons men, and it will be a season like no other, but the Gulgong team will be hitting the field this year.
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The draft draw for the Dubbo and District Football Association has five home games for the local club, the first four of which are in a row, beginning on Sunday, July 5, at Billy Dunn Oval.
There'll be no finals series, instead the format will be English Premier League style, first-past-the-post is the winner. Which will put an even greater emphasis on not dropping games that you should win throughout the 11-round season.
The later start to play had put it on a collision course with the start of cricket, should they've run finals, and there was a greater difficulty trying to get the various grades to sync-up due to changed team numbers.
This also led to a merging of two grades, which will see the Falcons set to go up against some previously higher ranked sides.
However, co-president Greg Reid said the local team - that took the 2019 grand final to penalty shoot-out in their grade - will be up for the challenge.
"Looking at how strong the comp is going to be, it's going to be very competitive for all of the teams. But I think we can handle it quite well," he said.
"Merging the grades was probably the best thing to do this year, considering how late we're starting and a lot of people being unavailable for other clubs. It's likely to only be this season, but we'll see what happens."
And while the Falcons have only had limited warm-up - two training sessions since the easing of restrictions - the combination of a core of club stalwarts, some new players for the club and some returning, has looked positive.
"We probably had a shorter preparation than then other clubs, because a lot of them started training as soon as they could, but we didn't start because we weren't sure if we'd be playing," he added.
"Two/three weeks is very short, but we're doing well, at training it was almost a bit like we'd never left the field. And we've got some new faces who are gelling with our squad."
Reid said that the Falcons not fielding a women's side in 2020 is unfortunately the result of so much uncertainty over whether they'd even be a season to play. But is optimistic of their return in a year with a bit more surety.
"That's just been the nature of the beast this year, a lot of factors were out of our control, hopefully they'll be back and with a team in 2021," he said.
The wait for a clear green light for football competitions to resume has been an agonising one, with junior football being given the go-ahead to return on July 5, but a question mark lingered over senior competition before it was eventually confirmed.
