AFL Covid: All the latest venue and fixture news

The walls have closed in on the AFL and it is now a race to finish the season. Everything is on the table, including games where we’ve never seen them.

Richmond and Collingwood in action at Norm Minns Oval in Wangaratta in March, 2020. Picture: AAP Image/Michael Dodge

Victorian country towns could be called off the bench to host AFL matches for premiership points in the run towards this year’s finals series.

News Corp can reveal that footy-mad regional centres have been discussed as possible venues in the event a growing number of matches need to be relocated from interstate.

Towns including Bendigo, Shepparton and Wangaratta could be at the front of the queue in what would be a first in VFL-AFL history.

Ballarat’s Mars Stadium is certain to be used, although it has already hosted six home-and-away games since 2017 as Western Bulldogs’ second home ground.

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Wangaratta is one of the front-runners to play host to AFL matches. Picture: AAP Image/Michael Dodge

The walls have closed in on the AFL and by Wednesday night all 18 clubs were housed in football’s heartland.

The Victorian government has decided against boosting last week’s crowd capacity of 25,000 for the MCG and Marvel Stadium and 18,000 for GMHBA Stadium, despite its intentions to restore the pre-lockdown cap of 85 per cent from this week.

But Victoria has suddenly become a safe haven and if other states remain in lock down then the bush footy plan will rapidly gain steam.

High-placed AFL sources confirmed on Wednesday night that the league was “looking at all options” in regards to staging rural games.

TV networks must be able to transport their equipment to regional grounds in time to broadcast games.

The AFL staged pre-season matches at Casey Fields, Norm Minns Oval (Wangaratta), Morwell and Colac last year.

There were games at Deakin Reserve (Shepparton) and Mars Stadium (Ballarat) in 2019. All of those matches were shown live on Fox Footy.

Besides Mars Stadium, none of those venues have ever staged an AFL match for premiership points before.

Richmond and Melbourne clash at Sherpparton’s Deakin Reserve in the 2019 pre-season. Picture: Michael Klein

Playing regional matches would be a throwback to 1952, when the VFL staged a ‘National Day Round’ as all 12 teams were dispatched to play away.

Games were played at Euroa, Yallourn and interstate – Essendon’s John Coleman suffered airsickness returning from Brisbane, where he started with five behinds and finished with 13 goals in a match that was delayed until Monday night due to rain.

Brisbane and West Coast were hopeful that if their state lockdowns proved effective they would be able to return home this weekend ahead of home games against St Kilda and North Melbourne respectively.

But if they are told to remain in Victoria then those round 17 matches would be prime candidates to take on the road in Victoria.

That scenario would see the Lions spend a month based in Melbourne, given they will then play at the MCG in rounds 18 and 19.

The Eagles have already lost an estimated $6 million from playing two home games in front of no spectators at Perth Stadium this season.

On Wednesday the Lions used Carlton’s facilities, Gold Coast trained at North Melbourne’s Arden St headquarters, Sydney hit Richmond’s Punt Rd base and Fremantle was granted rare access to Marvel Stadium.

The Lions will hit Collingwood’s headquarters on Thursday. Richmond opened its doors to Greater Western Sydney last week after the Tigers were grateful for being granted access to the Giants’ headquarters last month.

Adelaide is expected to train at Xavier College.

The Lions and Giants are sharing Sofitel Melbourne on Collins St while Gold Coast and West Coast are staying at the Pullman in Albert Park.

Originally published as AFL Covid: All the latest venue and fixture news