Unsurprisingly, the decision by the NSW Government not to reopen community sport until the state has reached 80 per cent double-dose vaccination rate has rubbed me the wrong way.

This isn't because I don't think people should be told to get vaccinated, they should. It also isn't because there shouldn't be some penalties for those who choose - choose being the key word - to flout public safety with the line "they're taking away my rights" and similar nonsensical thinking.

Instead I can't see the logic behind allowing people to gather indoors in places like pubs, where the majority of patrons will be without a mask for the majority of the time because they will almost certainly always have a drink in their hand.

We have been told by health officials time after time that the transmissibility of COVID outdoors is low and that the number of people catching it outdoors fails in comparison to that of those indoors. So why is sport - particularly outdoors - not allowed to go ahead?

Well the reason we have been given in the past is that because community sports are run largely by volunteers, that it will be harder to police those not allowed to play and also check in with QR codes in general.

But now another wrinkle has been thrown into the mix, which could also go against that line of thought.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro said this week that participants for community sport must be vaccinated.

"Clearly there are a lot of sporting bodies that have absolutely come out on the front foot and have made it absolutely clear that they've brought into the vaccination passport and that they want their participants to be vaccinated," he said.

"We need every club and every organisation to consider vaccination.

"This is a tough one, it's going to be very difficult to make sure every player in the team gets vaccinated, but that is the only way you'll get freedoms. Outside of that, you'll be breaching the public health order and there'll be fines accordingly."

So what does that mean? Will all members of a cricket team, a touch football team, of a swim club need to be vaccinated for the team to be allowed to play? I don't think so, because that would go against what the government seems to want. More likely it will mean that clubs and competitions will have to police people and check vaccination statuses prior to stepping foot on the field. So no jab, no play.

This takes me back to my earlier point; if clubs are to be asked to police themselves, as I think may be the case, why can't they do that already.

If you want to mandate it that players must be vaccinated to play following 'Freedom Day', I have zero problem with that as it may actually encourage some of the holdouts to get with the program, but I see no reason, with pubs and other indoor areas allowed to open, that community sport must wait.

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