AFL 2021: Fixture whispers, latest on AFL salary cap and Perth could be closed until June
As WA prepares to lock out the eastern states until the middle of 2022, the AFL faces a major juggling act which will leave West Coast and Fremantle in limbo.
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West Coast’s hopes at one last premiership tilt with an ageing list would be a dealt a hammer blow by a third season on the road, according to dual premiership star David King.
Australian sporting codes were thrown into chaos by WA premier Mark McGowan’s statement this week that it could be as late as June before borders are fully opened with eastern states.
The AFLW season starts on January 6, which could force both West Coast and Fremantle’s women’s teams to play the entire AFLW season on the road.
Many of those players have part-time jobs or are at university which would make it extremely difficult to be out of Perth for so long given their AFLW salaries are modest.
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But if McGowan carries out his threat it will also impact West Coast and Fremantle’s AFL teams, who have spent large chunks of the past two seasons out of West Australia.
King said it would fill players in West Australia with dread as they started to embark upon pre-seasons later this month, knowing there was such a large degree of uncertainty.
The Eagles admitted they battled in a Queensland hub early in the 2020 season and endured another torrid season in 2021 as players struggled with form and fitness concerns.
Instead of rebuilding, the experienced Eagles outfit will again back up to attempt to win a second premiership since 2018.
But King told the Herald Sun spending as many as the first 10 weeks on the road would be a disaster.
“It is almost an impossible situation for a club on the knife-edge of a rebuild,” he said of the Eagles.
“It’s the first opportunity for West Coast to gather full fitness and hit the summer hard ahead of teams that have played deep into finals. They have one last roll of the dice at the 2022 premiership. This information changes everything.”
The AFL’s fixture for 2021 is due out late in November but it will be hard for the league to schedule games involving West Coast and Fremantle with such uncertainty.
The league could schedule the WA teams in Melbourne or Sydney until June, with players at least not restricted by hubs as in previous years.
Then they could have a welter of home games in the back end of the season to make up for a stacked early-season schedule.
Or the league could allow those clubs to host games in Perth, with Victorian teams flying into Perth to quarantine in hotels.
They could remain in quarantine for two weeks and play both teams before flying back home, with the WA government allowing teams to play after seven days in quarantine as long as they followed strict provisions.
The AFL will be hopeful sky-high vaccination rates across the country could help McGowan fast-track his border opening.
But with such astonishingly high approval ratings and an 18-month pattern of holding his ground, there is no guarantee the situation will change before June.
“We’ll get to a reunion with people in NSW and Victoria sometime in the first half of next year,” he said this week.
“I’m one of those people. I’m seeing my parents again sometime in the first half of next year.
“I think we owe it to ourselves and to all the small businesses across the state and all the families that want to have a proper, relatively normal Christmas to avoid those restrictions that states like NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia are going to have in place.”
AFL players call time on Covid pay cuts
The AFL is set to ask players to commit to a second five-day break next season as part of a bid to maximise blockbuster games.
The league and player union are making strong progress on finalising a one-year collective bargaining agreement for 2022 that is likely to set the salary cap at just under $15 million.
After pay cuts across 2020 and 2021, the AFLPA is keen for players to be paid their agreed sum as per the final year of the original 2017-2022 CBA.
That would see clubs able to pay $13.538 million in the salary cap as well as $1.23 million in additional services agreements or marketing cash to be distributed to the club’s stars.
The league and union have the option to broker a new three-year deal from 2022-24 or agree to a fresh single-season deal for 2022.
But securing a revised one-year deal for 2022 will allow both parties greater certainty when sitting down next year on a long-term which could reflect the AFL returning to prosperity as it moves past Covid.
The AFLPA had been open to options including yearly State-of-Origin games and even a longer home-and-away season as part of growing the revenue pool for a long-term deal.
One of the AFL’s immediate fixturing priorities will be some more flexibility to allow clubs to maximise chances to play on Thursday and Friday nights.
This year Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge was upset the player union knocked back a request to play the Swans off a five-day break to secure a Friday night clash.
The Dogs had already used up their single five-day break in 2021 entitled to them under the CBA.
But the league and PA are likely to have a second five-day break – one either side of the mid-season bye – as a potential discussion point in negotiations.
It would only be used in rare occasions but would allow the league’s fixturing team the chance to maximise big-drawing games in premier slots.
The league would not comment on its plans for more fixture flexibility on Tuesday.
But AFLPA boss Paul Marsh told SEN last week the player union was closing in on a one-year deal.
“We are in a position where we do have a year to go on the CBA we did back in 2017. We have varied in the last two years around Covid,” he said.
We are In discussions on what next year looks like, and I would like to think we are not too far away from getting everything finalised. That is a piece of work we are right in the thick of at the moment.
“I think it’s probably going to end up being a one-year deal and our position is it should be what was agreed back in 2017, but we are just working through the details at the moment.”
Dees reveal plans for huge premiership party
— Jon Ralph
Melbourne has earmarked Sunday December 5 as its MCG premiership celebration as the club makes strong progress on a lucrative new contract for coach Simon Goodwin.
Melbourne is keen to lift the premiership cup in front of fans who were not able to watch the Perth Stadium Grand Final, hopeful of staging a free event with the drought-breaking team presented to the loyal fan base.
Demons chief executive Gary Pert told the Herald Sun on Monday the recent progress towards the state opening up — with few restrictions past November 24 — meant the club was optimistic about the December 5 date.
Pert also revealed the club had made strong progress on talks for locking away Goodwin on a new long-term deal that will also see the coach secure a strong pay rise.
Goodwin, captain Max Gawn and the premiership side would be presented if the Victorian government approves a plan that would likely be a ticketed event with the club absorbing the cost of the day.
“Every Melbourne person I talk to wants to know when we can get together to present the cup and we are working with the MCC and state government,” Pert said.
“We would like it to be December 5 and the last few days have made it seem more realistic we can make it something really special. We are putting a plan in place around how the day could work and still be something that fits in with the requirements with the government.
“We would like the opportunity to present the player, present the cup and have as many people who can rally together to enjoy the experience.
“We were so appreciative of the supporters from Adelaide and Perth who could get to the game and they gave us real momentum at key moments in the game but so many supporters who have been with us for a long time weren’t there and anything we can do to share it and say thanks is worth it.”
Goodwin’s deal expires at the end of 2022 but he is now in a powerful position to secure a two or even three-year extension with a pay rise factored into his tenure.
“We have started conversations with Goody’s management and I think they are starting off really strongly and positively. We won’t commentate on that all the way through but all parties would like to see it wrapped up and pushed to the side so we can focus on other things. He’s in a pretty strong negotiating position at the moment. It will work itself out.”
The Demons are yet to be told by the AFL the league has rubber-stamped their request for a Round 1 blockbuster clash against the Western Bulldogs.
But the league has said it is open to that game with no impediment so it would be a shock if it was not the Friday night clash of Round 1.
The Demons expect no issues with their players after the AFL’s new vaccination mandate which will require all players and staff to be fully vaccinated.
Melbourne forward Tom McDonald spoke recently of his wariness at mandates but has been vaccinated as many Demons players return to the club to get a headstart on pre-season training.
Fixture: ‘Mini grand final’ destined for Round 1
— Jon Ralph
Melbourne is likely to secure at least three marquee contests in the first six weeks of the 2022 season with the league open to the Demons playing a Round 1 premiership replay against the Western Bulldogs.
The league is in no hurry to release its fixture and is aware there might still be complications with Covid as it rolls out its 2022 draw in late November or early December.
But the AFL believes it can accommodate Melbourne’s desire to play the Dogs on the Friday night of Round 1 the night after the traditional Thursday Carlton-Richmond season decider.
The Herald Sun revealed this month the Demons wanted to create a “mini Grand Final” in Round 1 against the Dogs as part of a multi-pronged plan to reward fans that would involve unfurling the premiership flag.
With Anzac Day falling on Monday April 25, the Tigers and Melbourne will be slotted in for their Sunday night Anzac Eve clash which has built real momentum over the past seven years.
If that game was midweek the AFL might have had to do some fancy footwork with its fixture to hand the Demons a number of shorter breaks in the rounds leading up to the Anzac Day weekend.
But there is no impediment to that blockbuster Melbourne-Dogs Round 1 clash on a Friday night, which would double as a homecoming for the premiership side after a Perth Stadium premiership.
Playing on the Friday of Round 1 would also put the Demons in the box seat to play on the Thursday of Round 2 given the league could schedule them off a six-day break.
Given they play Richmond in Round 6, they could play the Tigers’ Round 1 opponent Carlton on the Thursday of Round 2.
Last year Collingwood played the Dogs on the Friday of Round 1 and then Carlton on the Thursday of Round 2.
The Demons will be desperate to draw huge early-season crowds to recoup some of the lost earnings of 2021, when the Queens Birthday clash was relocated and they missed out on their Northern Territory clash worth $500,000 or more.
The AFL is yet to finalise the structure of its fixture but a more flexible model that follows this year’s precedent seems likely.
The league would release each team’s opponents for 22 games this year as well as six or eight rounds with time slots locked in.
Then to maximise TV ratings it could release fixture blocks through the season to ensure in-form teams are rewarded with the best time slots.
The league will work through those questions in coming weeks while also working through the AFLW fixture.
That fixture is scheduled to kick off on the weekend of January 6-9 and while teams will likely be able to fly freely within Victoria, NSW, Queensland and South Australia, it remains to be seen how accessible West Australia will be.
Queensland will allow people from NSW and Victoria into the state from December 17 without quarantine, with the South Australian road map set to be released in coming days.
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Originally published as AFL 2021: Fixture whispers, latest on AFL salary cap and Perth could be closed until June
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