AFL 2021 Covid latest: How pandemic and lockdowns are impacting the season
Richmond and GWS will open Round 22 on Friday night. And the Giants’ preferred home venue could surprise some. See how next weekend is shaping up.
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Greater Western Sydney would prefer to host Richmond at Marvel Stadium on Friday night, sending the Tigers back to the venue Damien Hardwick admits he “hates” playing at.
As the home team, the Giants have a say in nominating the venue for their Round 22 mini elimination final, and on Sunday night they were leaning towards Marvel Stadium, ahead of GMHBA Stadium in Geelong and Richmond’s home ground, the MCG.
There will be no crowds at football games in Victoria again this weekend with the latest Covid outbreak fuelling suggestions the bulk of the AFL finals should be held interstate, and in particular in Perth, where there would be a packed house of 60,000 fans.
In that situation the AFL could use the pre-finals bye as a quarantine period for the clubs heading into September.
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Marvel Stadium has not been a happy hunting ground for the Tigers in recent times with Richmond winning only three of their past seven games at the indoor venue, including a shock 10-point loss to Gold Coast in Round 16.
Hardwick took aim at the stadium after his side pipped the Giants by four points in Round 9 in front of a relatively small crowd of 18,798 fans.
“Mate, I hate coming here. I probably shouldn’t say that,” Hardwick said.
“The MCG has got soul, it’s got Richmond people there. Our people don’t come here. Plain and simple.”
The Giants have given some consideration to hosting the game at GMHBA Stadium in Geelong, where GWS notched an extraordinary upset win over the Cats by 19 points on Friday night, but will await the AFL’s final call on the Round 22 fixture.
The Giants versus Tigers clash is a snug fit for the prime time match which kicks off the round as it will decide which of the two teams will surge ahead in a five-club battle for eighth spot.
The Geelong versus St Kilda clash at GMHBA Stadium could work well on Saturday night, while Collingwood is scheduled to take on Brisbane at the Gabba, pending the Covid situation in Brisbane, which has improved in Queensland in recent days.
The Hawthorn versus Western Bulldogs match is pencilled in for Launceston, but may have to be rescheduled, while Melbourne will take on Adelaide at the MCG.
North Melbourne will host the Sydney Swans at Marvel Stadium, while Carlton would be forced into midweek isolation if it travels to Adelaide to take on Port Adelaide.
West Coast and Fremantle meet in the west in the Derby.
What could keep grand final at MCG
— Sam Landsberger, Jon Ralph
An all-Victorian premiership decider could be played in front of the smallest grand final crowd the MCG has ever seen.
Western Bulldogs, Melbourne and Geelong occupy the top three places on the ladder with less than three rounds remaining, with two of those clubs likely to meet in a qualifying final.
If only a small crowd could attend the showpiece event on September 25 it is understood the AFL would consider keeping the match in Victoria if two local clubs won through.
The lowest MCG grand final crowd was recorded more than 100 years ago when 21,130 watched wooden-spooner Fitzroy defeat Carlton in a 1916 season sabotaged by World War I.
Fitzroy claimed the wooden spoon-premiership double because only four clubs competed and they all qualified for finals.
AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder hinted that it would be hard to deny members of Victorian clubs the chance to watch their teams create history next month.
“Right now the top two teams on the AFL ladder are the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne, and I can tell you if you ask their supporters they would rather 15,000 at the MCG on grand final day than 60,000 at Optus (Stadium),” Goyder said.
“Because they would at least have some chance of going to watch their team in a grand final.
“(But) I’m not saying that’s the AFL’s view.”
The presence of a non-Victorian club would make it harder to justify playing at a heavily-restricted MCG.
Fourth-placed Port Adelaide could be in line to play the grand final at home if it wins through for the first time in 14 years.
The Melbourne Cricket Club will not hold the AFL to its grand final contract, which expires in 2058, if crowds become tiny or unrealistic at all.
The stadium is aware the situation in Victoria is once again vulnerable and is keen to help support the game.
The prospect of September shaping as a ghost finals series in Victoria is also growing.
Some clubs feel qualifying finals, semi-finals and preliminary finals must be played in the state of the highest-ranked clubs because they have earned that right.
Sydney is the exception and is likely to be asked for its venue preference, given New South Wales will not be an option.
But the AFL must decide whether it wants to play, for example, a Geelong-Melbourne qualifying final in front of an empty and soulless MCG.
The other option would be dragging both clubs interstate so it could be played at a neutral venue, such as Adelaide Oval, in front of a packed crowd.
But the loser would not be thrilled at having to travel and then back up to play the following week.
Finals-bound clubs are eager to minimise travel as much as possible as they approach September.
It’s believed the AFL wanted Melbourne to host Adelaide in the Northern Territory next week after playing West Coast in Perth on Monday night.
But the Demons instead wanted to return home to freshen up and that match will be played at an empty MCG.
The Dogs are 5-0 interstate this season, which includes two victories in Perth. The Cats are 3-3 on the road while the Demons are 4-2.
How Perth decider could cause finals fixture havoc
The AFL would be unable to play the Grand Final in its traditional Saturday timeslot if it were forced to relocate the season decider to Perth Stadium.
The league would need to ask for a special WA government exemption to shorten the seven-day quarantine period given a preliminary finalist would be flying west after a Saturday night victory on September 18.
The league has now confirmed it has asked rival stadiums across Australia to consider fallback plans for a relocated game but is adamant the game will still be at the MCG.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan stated on Friday the league would only consider moving the game in the event of a Victorian lockdown in the days leading into the September 25 clash.
The league has asked Queensland (The Gabba), Western Australia (Perth Stadium) and South Australia (Adelaide Oval) to consider the logistics if the league made a late dash interstate for its Grand Final.
But under current WA border provisions the league could not play a Saturday night preliminary final in Melbourne then fly the winner to Perth for a Saturday twilight or night Grand Final clash.
The WA government requires clubs to fly into Perth for a week of hotel quarantine and then play on the seventh day.
The league would either have to bring forward its preliminary finals forward to Thursday and Friday night or consider a Sunday Grand Final.
The AFL is aware of the potential roadblock which in a worst-case scenario if Victoria and SA were in lockdown would force it to consider playing a Sunday Grand Final.
WA premier Mark McGowan said on Friday the state would be keen to host the Grand Final but made clear it would not bend the rules to allow Covid-19 into the state.
“I know other states crawl over broken glass for it. It would be good, it would be great fun and a great event but, whatever we do, we would do it in a safe way to make sure that we don’t allow the importation of the virus into WA,” he said.
The Herald Sun can confirm the league has no plans to relocate an entire finals series to Perth, still optimistic Brisbane and Port Adelaide could host home finals in the first weeks of the finals.
It is also attempting to set up a grandstand finish to the home-and-away season that has a Round 23 Friday blockbuster – likely Western Bulldogs v Port Adelaide – with do-or-die clashes on Sunday.
Ideally the last of 198 games of the home-and-away season would decide the finals order, so Carlton-GWS, Essendon-Collingwood and even St Kilda-Fremantle are contenders for the Sunday slots.
The league will be keen to replicate the 2017 finish where Melbourne entered the round in seventh spot, lost to Collingwood then missed the finals by half a percentage point when West Coast defeated Adelaide by 29 points in the late Sunday clash.
Next week’s fixture still has significant roadblocks, with the AFL needing to re-establish the South Australian and Tasmanian sterile corridors.
GWS-Richmond shapes as the likely Friday night clash of next week’s Round 22 fixture given both would still be in finals calculations even if they lost this weekend.
The league will need permission to fly Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs into Tasmania for their Launceston clash and for Port Adelaide to host Carlton (Adelaide Oval) and Adelaide to fly to Melbourne to play Melbourne (MCG).
McLachlan told 3AW on Friday only a lockdown in Grand Final week in Melbourne would see the game moved.
Gil still ‘really clear’ on AFL Grand Final venue
— Glenn McFarlane
Gillon McLachlan has revealed a series of recent conversations with club football departments and coaches had convinced the AFL it can leave a decision on the venue of this year’s Grand Final as late as possible.
The AFL’s acting football operations manager Andrew Dillon sought feedback from clubs across the past week about finals contingencies.
McLachlan said those discussions had left the AFL comfortable that it could “play the shots as late as we can” in terms of locking into finals venues.
In the wake of Victoria going into a sixth lockdown on Thursday, the AFL chief executive conceded a return of crowds to games in Melbourne before the end of the home-and-away season was now highly unlikely.
But while he admitted the AFL had been talking about contingency plans with various state governments, including Western Australia, he refused to rule a line through the MCG as the venue for the scheduled September 25 premiership playoff.
“I want to be really clear about it, our view and our expectation is that we will be playing the Grand Final at the MCG,” McLachlan said on 3AW.
“(But) things can move very fast.
“It is with the blessing and understanding of the Victorian Government that we are chatting to all the states (about venues).
“We are not just talking to WA, we are chatting to all the other venues – (but) respectfully not New South Wales.”
He said the AFL wanted to keep its options open in case of “a snap lockdown leading into a Grand Final.”
McLachlan said: “We have been talking to the clubs, and specifically the football departments this week … Andrew Dillon, the head of football, has been doing that.”
“There is just a much different mindset than there was a couple of years ago about how flexible and how agile our clubs can be.
“We don’t need much notice (to change fixtures and venues). We can wait until very late in the home-and-away season to know how the finals are going to be played out.
“That is comforting. It means we can play the shots as late as we can.”
McLachlan stressed that he wanted crowds at the finals, which could be a problem for matches in Victoria.
“The integrity of the finals is our priority and getting crowds there is a close second, having the energy and the finish to the season that it deserves,” he said.
“We will leave all decisions as late as we can.
“The health of our communities and our supporters is clearly going to be the priority and we will work with health (officials) but then we will explore the options to have crowds within that envelope.”
It’s time we gave up on MCG grand final
– Jon Ralph
Turn off the fairy lights, put the presents away, it’s time to cancel Christmas.
As Melbourne grapples with the realisation it cannot stifle the Delta strain for 12 days, let alone 12 weeks, the chance of 80,000 fans at the MCG on September 25 is surely a pipe dream.
Thursday’s gut-wrenching news about three new Covid cases in the community has a much greater fallout for the state and its workers than it does for the AFL.
But the chance of the AFL allowing fans back for its Round 22 games — next weekend — will again plunge dramatically.
And for an AFL executive that was attempting to kickstart the hasty escalation of crowds — from about 20,000 next week, to 40,000 at the elimination finals, to the dream of 75,000 or more for the grand final — it is a hammer blow.
The AFL’s immediate concern is this weekend’s fixture.
Hawthorn’s home clash against Collingwood has been moved to the MCG after Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein cancelled the Launceston contest over Covid concerns.
Gutwein announced on Thursday his state would not allow the game to go ahead as scheduled, with plans for up to 10,000 fans attending the game now dashed.
Victoria is on the verge of another three-day lockdown, which would take in the weekend, after yet more worrying Covid numbers on Thursday.
The AFL confirmed the game will be played at the MCG at 2.10pm on Sunday. Marvel Stadium already being used that day for the Western Bulldogs v Essendon clash at 3.20pm.
The Hawks v Pies game was originally scheduled for the MCG before the league transferred it to Tasmania when it became clear there would be no crowds in Melbourne for Round 20.
The teams were yet to leave for Tasmania and were preparing to fly in and fly out on Sunday.
Breaking: The Hawthorn-Collingwood game in Launceston will NOT go ahead, Premier Peter Gutwein has just announced.
— Brett Stubbs (@Stubboir) August 5, 2021
The most likely scenario for crowds for Round 22 had been capacities of about 20,000.
Even in the event of a three-day lockdown, the state government hasn’t expressly ruled out crowds for Round 22 but the likelihood would plunge given the risk factors.
What does every new caseload do for the AFL?
It resets the clock.
It forces the state government’s health department to again restart the count of days without community transmission.
The public health experts who control the state’s Public Events Framework are still obsessed with the fallout from the AAMI Stadium Wallabies rugby Test and the transmissions that occurred at that sporting event.
So they should be after the spread of cases at that event and the Geelong-Carlton MCG clash.
It is preposterous to think they would approve another superspreader event four times the size — with four times the risk — to the 20,114 who attended that Wallabies-France rugby clash on July 13.
The AFL Commission again this week reinforced its determination to hold the grand final at the MCG — as per its contract.
But given we are all experts in Covid-19, consider this hypothetical:
How likely is Melbourne to face another lockdown in the next 44 days — just over six weeks — that would crush all hopes of a crowd larger than 50,000 at the MCG?
Certain?
Pretty likely?
Miracle if we don’t?
All of those eventualities mean the grand final is at Adelaide Oval or Perth Stadium and the sooner we get our heads around the exciting possibilities the better.
This is surely a better outcome than Melbourne’s Grand Final Lite — where a cut-down crowd can barely circulate in the stadium or take off masks let alone enter the carnival spirit of the day which is such an integral part of its charm.
A capacity crowd of 60,000 in Perth — with all the lights and fireworks and build-up that the state can muster — would be one of footy’s great moments.
We have already seen the entree after 55,656 fans packed into the stadium for the Dreamtime in the West game between Essendon and Richmond.
The Dons made a packet from the contest, the state of Perth got a legitimate blockbuster and the football world was buzzing at the spectacle created.
The only negative from a game in Perth is the reality that its participants would be trapped in hotel quarantine in the lead-up instead of attending grand final parades and basking in the pre-game glow in the community.
So the AFL will continue with its public messaging — the grand final is at the MCG until it isn’t — while getting to work monetising a potential move west.
Knowing what we know about the past 18 months, it would seem the only real question is whether it marches across the border to Adelaide Oval or flies across the Nullarbor.
WHY Covid-COMPROMISED SEASON IS FAR FROM FAIR
– Will Hogan
Geelong superstar Patrick Dangerfield has admitted that playing amid the shifting Covid-19 chaos means the AFL season is no longer fair for all teams.
The AFL Players’ Association President said the current climate and the constant changes to fixtures and venues had impacted clubs vying for finals.
“It’s not going to be fair for all, that’s the simplest answer,” Dangerfield told SEN radio on Wednesday.
“That accumulative effect of multiple games over a long period of time, the distance of the season, the five-day breaks being topical, this is the reason why.
“Because while changes to fixturing might look good one week, (it’s) that accumulative effect over a long period of time when it comes to the finals season.”
Essendon was denied a Friday night clash last weekend due the AFLPA’s request for clubs not to have two five-day breaks in a season and Dangerfield said player welfare had to be front of mind.
“Sometimes you need to protect players and clubs from themselves because we all want to play on Friday night and Thursday night, but we’re trying to do the best thing we can for all players,” he said.
Last year’s AFL season was also riddled with changes to match lengths with players placed in hubs in Queensland.
The Brownlow medallist said fairness just was not possible while ensuring a season was completed.
“Initially last year it was certainly something that was discussed around how can this possibly be achieved in a way that was fair for all teams,” he said.
“And pretty quickly it was, well, we’re not going to be able to do that in a worldwide pandemic, so we just need to do the best we can.
“It’s never going to be fair in this current climate but as difficult as it is, there’s more important things at the same time with regards to the economy of the game.”
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