With your eyes shut, you'd have heard players - from ages six through to open ages - calling for the ball; you'd have heard parents cheering and encouraging and giving directions; you'd have heard the swish as the ball found the back of the net and even more cheering.

When the cheering was followed by "wait, no hi-fives remember!" reality would have come flooding back.

When the eyes opened, eight-year-olds were trying to remember how they were allowed to celebrate - do we elbow bump? - and parents were cheering while standing apart from each other.

There'd have been parking spots - free parking spots! At 10am on a Saturday! - in the carpark.

But as the Orange District Football Association's first round began, not quite with the gala day it planned but with nearly every registered player getting a game.

Cudal and District Soccer Club had several sides running around on Saturday, and while their under 11s didn't quite take the win against Millthorpe there were grins from ear-to-ear.

Player Lisa Walker said it was fun running around with her friends again, despite the cold weather.

She said it was "weird" not being able to hi-five or hug her friends, but was happy to be out on the field.

Parents were in the same boat, with one Cudal parent Kass Little saying they hadn't all been together since the end of last season

"It is actually, it's nice to have the camaraderie and have us all back together again because we've all been separated," she said.

"This [weather] isn't that bad, there's no horrible horizontal wind and there's no snow, it's been good."

ODFA president Tony Mileto said it was it was nice to have people running around at Jack Brabham Park again, despite the Friday shuffling of fixtures.

"We've got 400 registered players aged between five and 11 playing today and our seniors are starting off," he said.

"It's been challenging with restrictions but we are the first major sport to be back on the field and in some ways it's encouraging to see people back out playing and enjoying themselves."

Mr Mileto acknowledged there'd been "a lot of hoops" the ODFA had to leap through, but was "very happy to be back".

"I'd like to thank players and parents for being so patient with us and for understanding what it means to abide by those restrictions, they've done that today which has made our job a lot easier," he said.