AFL Outer East surveys its players about a return to footy when COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed
Keen to gain an insight into the thoughts of its players about a post-COVID return to footy and netball, the AFL Outer East has polled its playing members. The response has been staggering. WHAT WERE PLAYERS ASKED?
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With football’s D-Day approaching this Monday, when the AFL, AFL Victoria and local football leagues will plot their future following the state government’s COVID-19 restriction update, one local league is conducting a poll of its players to canvass their attitude towards any potential onfield return.
The AFL Outer East has put four surveys out to its playing members — senior/reserves/under-18 footballers; junior footballers; netballers; women’s and veterans footballers — with a closing date of May 11 for responses.
Like most leagues, AFL Outer East had surveyed its clubs about a return to footy but decided to go one step further and approach players directly.
Within 12 hours of the survey’s launch on Sunday, the league had received more than a thousand responses, most of which were in favour of a return.
“The response has been incredible,” AFL Outer East region general manager Aaron Bailey said. “We’ve had 1200 responses in 12 hours and 80 to 85 per cent wanted to return.
“We thought it was important to get an understanding of what our members were thinking. We were pleasantly surprised that 1200 responded in 12 hours but the really pleasing thing is that the player data matched, almost to the percentile, the data we gathered from the clubs.”
Bailey said the strong response to the survey reinforced that the league had to do everything it could to come up with a model that got clubs back on the park.
“There’s a real appetite and desire to return to footy,” Bailey said.
WHAT WERE PLAYERS ASKED?
Senior/Reserve/Under-18 footballers
Bailey said the challenge now was to formulate a plan that made that return possible without endangering the long-term survival of clubs hit hard by COVID-19 financial pressure.
Clubs would need to return in a way that best suited their situation.
“It’s not one size fits all,” he said. “There should be no pressure for a club or a player to return. We don’t want to put structures in place that prohibit such a return.”
Bailey said, once the state government’s new COVID-19 restrictions were announced, leagues would be better-placed to plan the remainder of the season.
He said, with the aid of the data gathered through the league’s surveys, AFL Outer East would then begin building a framework for any eventual return to footy and any structure put to clubs would have a number of different levels allowing them to find an entry point that best suited their return.
Senior, reserve grade and under-18 footballers have been polled on a range of issues dealing with a possible return to football this season:
*Players were asked whether they would be returning to play football in 2020 and, if they weren’t planning on coming back or were unsure about coming back, what their reasons were for that decision.
*Players were also asked about what format would most interest them should the AFL Outer East return to the field. Options suggested included an eight to 10-round season with finals, an eight to 10-round season without finals or a social competition.
*The length and timing of the season was also canvassed with players asked: “Would you be comfortable if football continued into October in 2020 to help complete a season?”.
*Players have been polled on whether they would be willing to play for a reduced amount, no payment at all or, perhaps, a set match fee for all players (eg: $100 for a win and $50 for a loss).
*Under-18 players have also been polled on whether they would consider playing on weeknights rather than Saturdays should outdoor gathering numbers be restricted.
Parents of junior footballers were asked a range of questions including whether their child would be returning this year, what competition format and match times best suited their family, if crowd restrictions continued whether having just one parent attending was acceptable and whether they’d be comfortable with temperature testing at the gate.
The women’s/veterans survey and the netball survey posed similar questions to the senior/reserve/under-18 survey though netballers were canvassed as to the possibility of playing a summer season if the winter competition wasn’t able to proceed.
The survey remains open until Monday, May 11 and AFL Outer East players/parents are urged to have their say.
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