Crows, Magpies in doubt as SANFL clubs struggle to meet JobKeeper payment requirements due to financial impact of COVID-19
Adelaide and Port Adelaide’s state league futures have been put in jeopardy by the AFL’s plan to introduce quarantine hubs as a way to restart its 2020 season amid the coronavirus crisis.
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The SANFL could be forced to play an eight-club competition if it resumes this season.
With the AFL poised to introduce quarantine hubs to save its year amid the coronavirus pandemic, the SANFL concedes it has left Adelaide and Port Adelaide’s immediate state league futures in jeopardy.
“The (regular) 10-team competition may be impacted by the hubs for the AFL, whether the two AFL clubs are going to be able to play,’’ SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson said.
The Crows and Port admit they are no certainties to play in a restructured SANFL competition this season because of questions about where and how AFL hubs are established.
It is possible the SA teams will be relocated interstate, with Victoria firming as the favourite, making it virtually impossible for Adelaide and Port to field teams in the local league this year if the competition goes ahead.
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Then there is the health risks of mixing AFL and SANFL players.
“It’s one of the many issues that we’ll have to work through,’’ Crows head of football Adam Kelly told Triple M.
“The complication for us if the SANFL competition does start up in 2020 is that we would be mixing our AFL-listed athletes with our SANFL supplementary players.
“So, we would need to be confident that we can manage the risk at that time, should it occur, so that we protect the health and safety of both our listed players and our SANFL players without any risk of infection.’’
Port chairman David Koch said it was too early to tell whether his club could field a team in the SANFL this season.
“I have no idea how it’s going to work out, either for the AFL or the SANFL, when either of them come back or in what form or structure they will be in,’’ he said on ABC SA Grandstand.
“So it’s a bit hard to comment on that, suffice to say that we are a foundation club of the SANFL, we are their most decorated club in terms of success and we intend to continue that for another 150 years.’’
With the AFL considering dramatically trimming the size of AFL player lists next season as the league is put under enormous financial pressure by COVID-19, the long-term future of both SA clubs in the SANFL is uncertain.
But of more immediate concern is what happens this year.
Parkinson said there was still much uncertainty about how any 2020 season could look and “participation availability’’ of the Crows and Magpies.
“There are so many different permutations we are looking at,’’ he said.
“There are challenges we need to be able to navigate through and limitations with what we can possibly do this season and all options are being considered.
“But we’ll look at doing whatever we can to put football back on an oval if it’s safe and doesn’t put our clubs in more financial peril.’’
Clubs struggling to make JobKeeper payments
Some SANFL clubs are “so close to the wind” financially that it is a balancing act for them to make the necessary JobKeeper payments to staff, according to league chief executive Jake Parkinson.
Nearly all of the league’s clubs have launched fundraisers to try and lessen the huge financial impact the COVID-19 pandemic will have on them, while all have opened their books up to the SANFL to stop any from going under.
Parkinson said SANFL’s financial team, one of the few they had on deck at league headquarters, were working closely with the clubs around their cashflow.
He said for some clubs it was a huge challenge.
“The Federal Government came out with a wonderful program in JobKeeper, of course with JobKeeper that is paid retrospectively and we already had some clubs who were paying down debt,” he said on ABC SA Grandstand.
“But they still had that debt, so even funding JobKeeper (for employees) is a very careful process for our clubs to ensure they have the funds to be able to make those JobKeeper payments and then (get) that reimbursement back from the Federal Government.
“So that is how close to the wind some clubs are, and we are working very hard to make sure they have the financial ability to come through this.”
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Parkinson said this might mean the SANFL may need to step in and help out struggling clubs, but the league itself would require backing to do this.
The SANFL is negotiating a bank loan to help it emerge from the impacts of no revenue from games at Adelaide Oval.
Parkinson said the competition would still work to its May 31 resumption date, as the heads of other state leagues say they will wait for the AFL to outline its road-map for returning to play.
The AFL will make an announcement in the week beginning May 11 on how it will try and get the 2020 season up and running again after COVID-19 put it on ice after one round.
AFL Tasmania chief executive Trish Squires said after this state leagues and community football can start to plan how to get their seasons up and running.
“The timetable we will now work to has been revised,” she said.
“In the week beginning May 11, there will be an announcement from the elite game with a proposed date for a resumption of training and return to play.
“An update around timings for a resumption of activity at community level will be provided once the road-map for the elite competition has been announced.”
Parkinson said the SANFL would still work to its original May 31 resumption date having had to postpone the 2020 season from its intended April 3 start date.
“Putting a date on it (the resumption) is very, very difficult so we will remain with our May 31st date,” he said.
“Putting further dates out there right at the moment is really guess work, I think it is a matter of what is required to get a contact sport back out there.
“We will be informed by SA Health on that matter.”
In the all but certain scenario that crowds are not allowed in when or if the SANFL season starts in 2020, multiple games could be played at Adelaide Oval on a single day to reduce costs for league clubs.