Fixture latest: AFL scraps pre-finals bye, holds out hope of Grand Final at MCG
The pre-finals bye is gone, but there could still be big changes to how the finals play out — and one could be the key to Perth’s first AFL Grand Final.
AFL
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Clubs want the AFL to reschedule the bye on the weekend before the Grand Final as part of a reshaped finals series.
Senior club officials contacted by News Corp on Monday were strongly in favour of inserting the week off in the lead-in to the premiership decider after the league confirmed it had scrapped the pre-finals bye.
The decision to scrap the pre-finals bye means the regular season will end this weekend and then roll straight into the first week of the finals on August 27-29.
The league is expected to ditch the regular Thursday night game in the first week of the finals and replace it with a Sunday elimination final on August 29.
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The league still wants to play the Grand Final on Saturday, September 25 and is considering whether to reschedule the bye either before the preliminary final or Grand Final.
But there is a concern top-four teams will have too much rest time if it is slotted into the weekend before the preliminary final.
Under that scenario, the two top-four teams which triumphed in the qualifying final next weekend may not play until 21 days later on Friday, August 17, leaving a cavernous gap to their cutthroat preliminary final.
Instead, there is considerable support to put the bye in the weekend before the Grand Final, giving the two best teams one weekend off only before the premiership decider.
“That is clearly the most logical spot for it, the weekend before the Grand Final,” one senior club official said on Monday.
“It is the only place for it. Otherwise you could be in a situation where you have got two weeks coming into a preliminary final and that is not what you want.
“It is too much time off.”
Another senior club figure said: “I can’t work it out why you would have it in the weekend before the preliminary final. It has to be the weekend before the Grand Final.”
The weekend off leading into the Grand Final could be used as a quarantine period for teams if they are required to isolate in Perth amid the latest COVID-19 chaos in Victoria.
The league could also use the week-off in the Grand Final lead-in for awards nights and celebrations.
But the league is set to delay a decision on the new timing of the bye as it considers club feedback and assesses the latest COVID-19 case numbers across the country.
AFL clubs and fixturing chief Travis Auld said the decision was made to “mitigate the uncertainty” the game currently faced due to the COVID-19 crisis.
“As we continue to navigate such uncertain times and the challenges associated with delivering matches across multiple states we want to ensure the momentum of the season isn’t compromised in the lead up to the 2021 finals series.
“We will approach the finals series as we have the last 18 months, and that is to remain flexible and agile while monitoring an evolving set of circumstances in front of the competition.
“Our game is not immune to the uncertainty and the challenges in the wider community. We have had to make decisions all year to mitigate risk to keep the season going and now to ensure we deliver fans an epic and memorable month of AFL finals.
“If circumstances require in the lead up to the 2021 Toyota AFL Grand Final, then we have the ability to pause for a week, ensuring we deliver on our commitment to provide the two competing clubs, their members and fans the biggest and best sporting event of the year.”
PERTH LOOMS AS GRAND FINAL HOST AS VIC CASES SURGE
Perth is closing in on hosting a historic Grand Final despite the AFL and Victorian government making a last-ditch plan to host the season decider at the MCG with 50,000 fans.
The league is not ready to abandon hope of playing the season’s decider in Melbourne but it would take a dramatic drop in Covid-19 numbers as the Victorian lockdown pushes back to September 2.
The AFL confirmed on Monday that it was scrapping the pre-finals bye and rolling straight into the first week of finals at the end of the home-and-away season.
The AFL still expects the Grand Final to be played on September 25.
It comes as Western Australia premier Mark McGowan said he hoped players would be vaccinated if the Grand Final were to be played in Perth.
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McGowan said no deal had been struck about finals or the Grand Final being played at Perth Stadium.
“(A deal) hasn’t been achieved at this point in time but, obviously, we’re working with the AFL on very strict guidelines around all these issues, and I don’t think the AFL has made that decision yet,” he said.
“They would be decisions that we’ll have to work on with the chief health officer, but I’d expect most footballers, in fact, all, are probably vaccinated, I certainly would have thought that would have been a wise decision by the AFL.
“But I understand our police and our health officials are working with the AFL at this point in time about what the protocols will be.”
McGowan said players’ partners would not be admitted to Perth.
The league has been adamant it will not jump the vaccination queue.
High-level industry figures on Monday agreed it was “highly likely” the game will be moved to Perth, but the state government will want one last Hail Mary to prove it can host the game in Melbourne.
The chance of an all-Victorian Grand Final that could involve Melbourne playing its first decider since 2000 is one of the few reasons why the AFL will still resist moving the Grand Final early.
But there will be only a handful of days between the current September 2 end date of the lockdown and the date the AFL will need to make a decision on the Grand Final.
AFL clubs and fixturing chief Travis Auld, who two weeks ago described the bye as “a bit of safety net or break glass (in case of emergency) mechanism”, said the decision to roll straight into the finals without a break was made to “mitigate the uncertainty” the game currently faced due to the Covid crisis.
“We want to ensure the momentum of the season isn’t compromised in the lead-up to the 2021 finals series,” Auld said.
The decision to scrap the pre-finals bye signals the end of the Thursday night game in week one of the finals.
The league does not want any team to suffer the disadvantage of having a five-day break or significantly shorter break than their opposition in a final.
Instead, the AFL is likely to schedule a Sunday elimination final on August 29.
If there is a bye in the weekend before the preliminary final it will mean any club which wins the qualifying final will then have two weeks off before playing in a prelim.
The league could ship four teams to Perth on September 4 for preliminary finals on September 11, or could use the bye before the preliminary finals and play them on September 18.
The AFL will continue its discussions with venues that include The Gabba, Adelaide Oval and Perth Stadium — with the Perth-based venue the strong favourite.
A hard lockdown with curfews rather than a never-ending lockdown with hovering case numbers actually gives the state government a better chance of reducing numbers to near zero.
But in the extremely unlikely case Covid numbers are close to zero in early September the state government could pitch an MCG Grand Final at around 50,000 fans.
There is no “magic number” of attendees to keep the Grand Final at the MCG but anything less than 50,000 fans would likely see the game transferred.
Hopes of Geelong hosting fans at a first-week at GMHBA Stadium have also plummeted given the extended lockdown.
If the state government gave permission for crowds to attend GMHBA Stadium one theory is that it would become a carrot for people from Melbourne to circumvent restrictions to attend the game.
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Originally published as Fixture latest: AFL scraps pre-finals bye, holds out hope of Grand Final at MCG
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