Hawks' president Mark Johnston isn't sold on NSWRL's plan to return on July 18.

Those were the words of a composed Mark Johnston on Thursday morning who isn't jumping the gun in the wake of NSWRL's announcement that Group 10, and other community-based rugby league competitions across the state, will be given the green light to return on July 18.

Instead, the Orange Hawks' president is more interested in an update from the NSW government and thinks everything NSWRL has in the works could be shot down in just over a month's time.

"The Department of Health will discuss their next move around the end of May and until they give a date, I'm not too worried about what NSWRL says," Johnston said.

"It's a matter for the government to decide on. We've still got another five weeks before we get an update from them.

"Once restrictions have been lifted then we can talk about the financial side of things."

It's all well and good for NSWRL to allow grass roots footy to kick-off in three month's time but if the gathering laws aren't fully lifted by then, it's likely Group 10 games will be played without crowds which leaves the competition in a tough spot.

An impossible spot, if you ask Johnston.

"We won't survive without crowds," Johnston said.

"We spent about $3,000 on every home game before a fan even enters the ground. If we can't generate any income, we won't play. We've already spent about $21,000 on jumpers and merchandise.

"If the season returns as normal on July 18 we'll be right to play but without crowds no one will be."

With Wade Park being Orange's only feasible location to play Group 10 games, there wouldn't be any wiggle room as far as scheduling goes with cricket starting in October.

"We can't really push anything back ... it would be a really compact competition," Johnston added.

And it's not just CYMS and Hawks that are an area for concern as multiple Group 10 clubs are battling throughout this financial crisis, with major sponsorship up in the air.

"A lot of these clubs are really struggling financially," he said.

"There's a lot of ideas being floated around but we just don't know what kind of form the comp will be in if it returns."

On the surface, the announcement from NSWRL on Wednesday looked like a game-changing one and it's certainly a good thing that Group 10 has the permission to return mid-July but there's a host of crucial boxes to tick between now and then.