AFL North West president Sonia Martin said they are "keeping all options open" as they endeavour to complete the season after COVID threw a late curve ball.
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The finals series was just hours away from getting underway when Armidale was plunged into a seven-day lockdown after two positive tests.
It forced Saturday's senior semi-finals to be suspended, with the organisation also announcing that this coming weekend's fixtures were also being postponed.
In the wake of the cancellations, the executive met on Monday night to work out a strategy moving forward.
"Our intention is to play out the full finals series," Martin said, adding that they will balance that with "keeping everybody COVID safe".
Following the meeting, she said the competition management committee sent around to the clubs a few different options "to get a gauge of what's important and how far into the year we can push".
Preparing for various eventualities, she said the options are "pretty varied".
"It's really around finding out where the clubs are at," she said.
The longer the season stretches things like ground availability is something they might need to consider.
"We're just trying to think outside the box," Martin said.
They do though have the luxury of a bit of time.
"Our grand final is much earlier than last year, we've got a bit of time up our sleeve," she said.
"We've got time to assess and make a solid plan that is safe."
One of the big considerations as far as a resumption is the lack of training sides will be able to do.
The Gunnedah women are the only of the semi-final sides not presently impacted by the lockdowns.
"We'll be looking at seeking advice around fitness and risk of injury," Martin said.
"We need to be very careful around not coming out of lockdown and going straight into the finals."
She admitted it was a bit of a mad scramble on Saturday with the situation changing throughout the day.
Initially they only suspended the men's minor semi-final between the New England Nomads and Inverell Saints.
But it soon became apparent the Saints women were also going to be affected as they had played in Armidale the week before so they decided the best course of action was to cancel all of the games.
Martin said the way the clubs took it was fantastic.
"The acceptance from the clubs and the positive feedback from the executive has been really heartening," she said.
