Mixed messaging from Australia's elected officials has been a common complaint as the world grapples with a 1-in-100 year pandemic.

It is evident in sport, too, from the grassroots level to the elite.

While officials from top-flight leagues are trying to eke out each possible week of competition before a possible enforced shut down, parents are left wondering this week what they should do in a situation that has been changing by the day if not the hour.

It took until Wednesday afternoon for the Federal Government to issue any guidelines, which say community, school and junior sport can continue.

The guidelines were prepared by the federal and state chief health officers and stated that only community sport participants should attend sporting events — players, coaches, match officials, volunteers and parents.

As with the general coronavirus guidelines, the sport directions suggested minimising physical contact, such as shaking hands or celebrating between players.

They said contact sports came with a greater risk of transmission and should be judged on a case-by-case basis.

That advice flies in the face of the decisions taken by all the major sporting codes this week to call off grassroots and junior sport for periods ranging from two weeks to more than two months.

Now only some of the more niche sports and some private martial arts academies are continuing to operate.

There is now a sharp distinction between the highest levels of elite sport in Australia; top-flight soccer, NRL and AFL (for now) are still on, but every other level is off.

Local sport has been stopped, but professional sport continues, for now. ( AAP: Dean Lewins )

Some parents have been confused by the call by grassroots sporting organisations ahead of government advice.



Adelaide father David Latte has an 11-year-old son who plays soccer. He said he was confused by the initial statement by the FFA, which recommended that soccer could go ahead, while Football South Australia has decided to postpone all games for two weeks.

"They have to make it a blanket approach," said Mr Latte, adding his daughter's school made a clear and early decision to stop her netball games.

"The common-sense thing to do at the moment would be to stop it [junior sport].

"Sporting groups don't really know who to look to for information.

"The Federal Government needs to be better at being clear and considered about the messaging but at the moment they're leaving it to the state governments, which are giving different messages to different people."

Federal Liberal MP Andrew Laming has called for an end to contact sport at all levels during the coronavirus crisis.

"If we're going to practice social distancing, it's going to rule out any contact sport and I think it's time authorities realised that," he said.

Junior football has been cancelled by local and, now, national federations. ( ABC News: Jonathon Gul )

But Mr Laming's Liberal Party colleague, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard, has been spruiking a much different line.

He said people should keep calm and carry on with their sport.

"I think, be cautious, but certainly enjoy your sport," said Mr Hazzard yesterday.

"But also make sure you're using the hand cleaner and all the other things — basic hygiene before and after you play."

It is an irony not lost on Mr Laming, who is a registered medical practitioner and has a master's degree in public health.

"We're all trying to self-isolate and distance, so you simply can't be swapping secretions, tackling and playing this kind of intense physical sport," he said.

Whether junior sport takes place has been at the discretion of individual clubs and competitions. ( Unsplash: Alyssa Ledesma )

Professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales, Raina MacIntyre, believes that those sports that have called things off have made the right decisions because "there is always a risk in allowing kids to get together".

"Because children are more likely to be asymptomatically infected, we really should be cautious about how much contact we should allow," Professor MacIntyre said.