The current stay-at-home orders are set to be lifted in parts of regional NSW at the end of August, but the growing concern in Dubbo, where there's now 148 active cases of COVID-19, means that's an almost impossible reality for that LGA in just eight days.

The Orana Spurs and Dubbo Bulls have qualified for the finals in 2021, as have Waratahs and Barnstoneworth clubs in Orange. Parkes will likely finish fifth.

Across the Western NSW Local Health District, there's now nearly 200 active cases. None of those are in Orange or Parkes, though.

WPL competition administrator Peter Mitchell admitted there was still plenty of balls up in the air when looking at any potential return, but said a quick-fire, two-week finals series where teams would play Saturday and Sunday in the top-five format was an option - albeit a tough one to facilitate.

However, one scenario looks increasingly unlikely.

"Going into October, there's one team that has told me they wouldn't be able to field a team in October. Their players have got other commitments," he said.

"There's ways around it if the lockdown was lifted because we could play games on a Saturday and then a Sunday.

"We could work them in to having finals over two weekends if we could.

"But then you've got teams backing up on Sunday to play a team that didn't play on Saturday, so it's tricky."

The last WPL game to be played was a midweek catch-up match between Barnstoneworth United and Panorama, which resulted in a 1-all draw on Wednesday, August 11.

The 2021 finals were scheduled to kick-off this weekend.

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