AFL Covid crisis: Up to date news on how Melbourne’s coronavirus outbreak is impacting the AFL
AFL clubs are changing their plans by the day as Melbourne’s Covid outbreak throws the season into chaos. Here’s the latest.
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Melbourne looks certain to remain a footy wasteland next weekend, stripping millions of dollars from Victoria’s cash-strapped clubs.
Instead of drawing 85,000 fans at the MCG, the Dreamtime at the ’G game is now certain to be played at Optus Stadium in Perth.
The AFL is hoping to release the Round 12 fixture as early as Monday, but Sydney will be the home of football next week with as many as four games of the six scheduled matches.
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After last year’s Covid exodus, the league will be hopeful this year’s move north will be short-lived, but can guarantee nothing for its fans.
The latest Covid hurdle means the Dreamtime game, now a highlight of the AFL’s Sir Doug Nicholls Round, will have been played in three different states in as many years after last year’s Darwin contest.
Essendon coaching legend Kevin Sheedy told the Herald Sun on Sunday with such famous names from both clubs coming from West Australia, fans should pack out the stadium.
The AFL’s latest Covid blow comes after at least one mystery case emerged in Melbourne, which will dash any hopes of playing football in Victoria next weekend.
Richmond will likely fly to Perth at some stage this week before the Saturday night clash against a resurgent Essendon.
Collingwood is still awaiting an exemption from the South Australian Government but is hopeful of a fly-in, fly-out mission to take on the Crows at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
The Western Bulldogs flew out to Sydney on Sunday after changing plans about spending a week in hotel lockdown in Perth.
They will still play Fremantle next Sunday, set to fly out for Perth from NSW on Saturday.
Essendon will lost $1 million from its bottom line if it loses the Dreamtime game, with the AFL unsure about how the gate would be split at Optus Stadium.
Melbourne will lose $800,000 from the NT Government if it loses its Alice Springs clash and $1 million-plus if the Queen’s Birthday clash at the MCG in Round 13 is relocated.
St Kilda still has two options for its Marvel Stadium game against Sydney - playing it at the SCG or moving it to Cairns, where the Saints will play their Round 14 game against Adelaide.
St Kilda expects to fly to Sydney to play the Swans in a game that could be flipped from Marvel Stadium to the SCG, with the Round 21 game between the sides coming back to Melbourne later in the year.
Clubs have taken a full allocation of players for interstate trips. which could last longer than a fortnight.
But at this stage they have no families with them, which will be a cause of concern for many AFL players.
St Kilda’s Tim Membrey could consider returning to Melbourne at some stage with his wife due with their second child in June.
Western Bulldogs head of football Chris Grant explained the club made the detour to Sydney to give the group more “freedom” than they would have had going straight to Perth, due to border constraints.
“We were originally going to be spending the whole week in Perth,” Grant said.
“The AFL gave us a call late (Saturday) to say the negotiations between the New South Wales Government and the WA Government had gone really well and there was a chance that we might be able to go through NSW and spend the week up there before heading across the WA on the Saturday.
“We originally planned to go across to WA ourselves the day before the game, which was (on) the Saturday, so now we’ll be doing that from Sydney instead.
“The great thing is being able to get up to Sydney as a team, as a group, is terrific but also to be able to get some freedom, which we wouldn’t have got in WA, it would have been fairly hard sort of isolation between the hotel and the training venues.
“So we are really appreciative of the AFL and we are also really appreciative of the NSW Government and the WA Government allowing the game to go ahead and for us to get across and play a game against Freo late Sunday afternoon.”
Stars including Norm Smith Medallist Billy Duckworth, Brownlow Medallist Graham Moss, Leon Baker, Scott Cummings, Derek Kickett and a Sheedy favourite Tony Buhagiar all hailed from WA.
“We have still got the best supporter base of all the Victorian clubs over there. We should pack it out. It would be a very good crowd,” Sheedy told the Herald Sun.
“It would be a challenge for the club to do it, if it ends up rolling that way, but we would definitely get a good crowd of WA people.”
Essendon captain Dyson Heppell told 3AW Radio on Sunday the Dons expected to play at Optus Stadium.
“I think so, we are just rolling with it. There has been no real confirmation. But by the sound of things that is what we will be doing. We will be here for another week and then have another crack at the ‘Tigs’ on Optus, which will be huge.”
HOW LONG WILL VICTORIA BE WITHOUT FOOTY?
Victoria looks set to be without football next weekend as the AFL’s evacuation plans ramp up in the midst of the state’s fourth COVID-19 lockdown.
Carlton has been told it will stay in Sydney to take on West Coast at the SCG instead of the MCG next Sunday, while Richmond could end up spending most of a wintry June living in sunny Perth.
The Eagles have not won at the SCG this century, going 0-9 since 1999.
Even if Victoria’s seven-day lockdown proves successful, club bosses are aware that the latest virus outbreak will have brutal financial implications because large crowds at the MCG and Marvel Stadium won’t be allowed again for some time.
Sydney’s only AFL-free scheduled weekend of the season could morph into a Friday-Saturday-Sunday triple-header, with the league considering relocating three Round 12 games to the Harbour City.
The St Kilda-Sydney “Pride Match” could shift from Marvel Stadium to the SCG on Saturday, while Friday night’s game between Melbourne and Brisbane Lions could join the New South Wales footy feast.
Queensland is another option for that top-four battle, which is currently slated for Alice Springs, as the league struggles to gain an exemption to get the Demons into the Northern Territory.
Demons CEO Gary Pert said on Saturday the alternative was playing in Sydney or Queensland on Friday night.
“At this stage it’s more likely to be interstate,” Pert said of the clash, which could cost the Demons $800,000 if not played under a NT sponsorship arrangement.
A clean fixture flip between the Saints and Swans is possible because the clubs are due to meet again in Round 21.
While that outcome makes sense to the Saints, it would rely on the NSW government allowing them to fly in from Victoria next week.
Carlton is not subject to the same Covid restrictions as Richmond in Sydney because it departed earlier.
Richmond has had to remain in the same lockdown conditions as Victorian-based citizens because it missed a 4pm deadline on Thursday to enter NSW.
Tigers coach Damien Hardwick was unsure whether his club would remain in western Sydney or hit the road in preparation for the Dreamtime blockbuster.
But the Herald Sun understands the Tigers are likely to fly west and play consecutive games against the Bombers and West Coast at Perth Stadium.
That scenario would see the Tigers spend close to three weeks in Perth and would be a popular result for West Australian Tigers Marlion Pickett, Liam Baker, Nathan Broad, Kamdyn McIntosh and Sydney Stack.
Round 11 combatants Essendon and West Coast are already in Perth, while Fremantle and Western Bulldogs will also be in town for their game next Sunday.
The Dogs depart on Sunday and will be locked down in a Perth hotel.
The Tigers and Eagles are both slated to have the bye in Round 13 before they meet on June 17 in the opening game of Round 14.
But if the AFL didn’t want the Tigers to spend their bye sitting idle in Perth it could conceivably bring their game against West Coast forward by one week and then give both clubs a week off in Round 14 instead.
Richmond’s leaders, including returning captain Trent Cotchin, have spoken about the 5-5 Tigers “reconnecting” on the road following an unusual period of on-field turbulence, just as they managed last year when they entered their Gold Coast hubs in a similar position.
They flew every available player out of Melbourne last week and have enough reserve players on the road to stage scrimmages against other clubs.
The Tigers have set up camp near Greater Western Sydney’s home ground, where they will host the Crows on Sunday at a venue they have not won at since 2014.
Richmond is 0-4 at Giants Stadium in these golden years, with GMHBA Stadium (0-1) the only other AFL venue it has played at without success in the premiership era.
But a smiling Hardwick said the trip north was a “blast from the past (2020)” and was confident the logistic uncertainty would only galvanise his champion team.
“We’re prepared to play anywhere, anytime,” Hardwick said after a week of suggestions that he and the Tigers were at war with the AFL.
“The Richmond Football Club will always be very supportive of the AFL and where they deem it’s preference for us to play.”
Full-forward Jack Riewoldt is set for a role change in the absence of Tom Lynch (knee) while the Tigers hope David Astbury (Achilles soreness) will only miss a couple of weeks, although they were uncertain of his time frame.
Tall inclusions Callum Coleman-Jones and Mabior Chol will give the Tigers a new complexion, which Hardwick said “excited” the match committee.
Coleman-Jones made his AFL debut more than two years ago and has not played since while Chol was dropped after last year’s qualifying final loss.
“We haven’t seen these players play together, so how it works we’re not quite sure,” Hardwick said.
“What we do know is it’s going to give us a really different look to what we’ve seen before.”
KENNETT’S FINANCIAL FEARS FOR Covid-STRICKEN AFL
Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett fears any extension of Victoria’s seven-day lockdown could have massive financial implications on the AFL and its 18 clubs.
Kennett also said he believed many footy fans – the lifeblood of the clubs – have become conditioned to watching on television and might be reluctant to return.
“Let’s hope – in fact, let’s pray – this lockdown doesn’t last longer than seven days,” Kennett said on 3AW.
“I am very, very worried that seven days is not going to be enough because of the speed at which this thing (Covid) is spreading.
“I hope I am wrong.
“If you take football out of the balance in society at the moment, then it is only going to compound the financial and mental issues that the community is going through.”
He added: “When you get down to sort of 50 per cent crowds, that is a fine line; when you get below that, it is very costly … particularly clubs like the (Western) Bulldogs and Melbourne.
“(They) are playing exceedingly well this year, they are top of the ladder and they are not the wealthiest of clubs. Crowds in attendance become terribly important for their bottom line.
“If we have to go into hubs and things like that … (it will be tough).
“The AFL got through last season very well. (But) they have used up all of their cash. They have a line of credit that is available to them, but once you start going into a line of credit, you have a debt to be repaid at some stage.
“They will be praying for a better year in (20) 23.”
Kennett said the AFL and clubs must learn from their experiences over the past 18 months because he fears the competition might need to deal with Covid-related implications for years.
“We might have to live with a Covid environment – maybe not COVID-19 but there may be another variant, another mutation that comes in 10 or 20 years. This might become the norm, and we have got to learn from our recent experiences over the last 18 months.
“We are at war with this virus, this virus is playing with us, we have got to be ready for the next one.”
He said clubs had already started to fear the recent drop off in attendances could be a worrying sign for the future.
“I think we have already seen that in part, the crowds are down this year,” he said. “People have bought some of these apps that are available through television whether it is Foxtel or Kayo.
“They are getting used to watching it from home.”
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Originally published as AFL Covid crisis: Up to date news on how Melbourne’s coronavirus outbreak is impacting the AFL
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