AFL 2022: Former mature-age recruit Michael Barlow says state league players will be ready to top up AFL lists in case of Covid

Another season is set to be impacted by Covid-19, but VFL coach and former mature-age recruit Michael Barlow says there are reinforcements in the wings.

Werribee coach and former Fremantle star Michael Barlow says state-league players around the country would be ready, willing and able to act as short-term top-up players for the coming AFL season.

Barlow, who was 22 when he first joined the Dockers, believes footballers at VFL level should jump at any opportunity to fill in for teams hit by Covid-19 outbreaks because “it might be the only chance you get”.

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The league is working on wide-ranging contingency plans with clubs to ensure it can tackle the coming season with minimal interruptions to the fixture.

Already the ongoing Omicron disaster has caused major disruptions with the 2022 AFLW season as well as the Ashes series and domestic competitions such as the BBL, A-League and NBL.

One senior source at AFL club level said teams believe they will be asked to field 23 players every week of the coming season no matter what.

Postponing matches would be a last resort.

Michael Barlow says state league players will be ready to step up to fill the breach if Covid forces AFL-listed stars out.

While the AFL stressed this week it was yet to formalise any plans for replacement players, Barlow said the state league talent pools were strong enough to help out if needed.

One possibility being considered was creating a pool of 10-day top-up players.

“I am very bullish about the talent in the state league,” Barlow told News Corp.

“I don’t know exactly how it would happen, but I do know the talent is there.”

Barlow said while the use of top-up players might impact state-league clubs in the short-term, he believed the players would largely jump at the chance.

“In the world that we live in, giving a player a lick of the ice-cream (for a potential 10-day call-up) would be tough,” he said.

“It might be like a five-year-old’s birthday, where you get excited for the one day and then it is taken away from you.

“But the Ross Lyon (line) was always to open yourself up to the possibility of devastation.

“I would sing from that hymn book. If you are given a 10-day contract, you go in with eyes wide open knowing there is the possibility that 10 days later the recruiters might forget your name.

“It might be the only shot at it you might get at it.”

AFL and club sources have said they are confident list sizes of up to 42 will be able to cope with any potential Covid-19 disruption this year.

But SANFL chief executive Darren Chandler said on Thursday that the AFL “has informed us that it (top up players) is among many strategies being discussed”.

“I’m not sure how the details would work,” he said on SEN SA.

When both Adelaide and Port Adelaide returned to pre-season training last month with a quarter of its playing squads missing because of Covid-19 protocols both clubs said the SANFL needed to look at broadening the pool of top-up players they could use in their state league squads this season.

The SANFL is yet to formalise anything in the case that the Crows and Port’s SANFL sides are severely weakened by protocols.

But Chandler said the “integrity of the SANFL competition is paramount”.

“So if it got to that situation, and it is highly unlikely, then we would have to work very closely with the AFL and the AFL clubs to make sure that there are enough players to play AFL footy but it doesn’t impact on the integrity of the SANFL competition,” he said.

Adam Simpons men are hoping for a relatively normal season. Picture: Getty Images

AFL believes it can thrive despite WA border headache

—Jon Ralph

The AFL is confident uncertainty over the nation’s Covid picture will have cleared sufficiently for a barnstorming Round 1 despite West Australia’s hard border issues.

The league has 45 days until both WA-based sides are scheduled to play on Sunday March 20, with West Coast flying to Queensland to play Gold Coast and Fremantle hosting Adelaide.

The AFL Commission held a routine board meeting on Tuesday morning which involved an update on the current AFLW season and impending men’s fixture.

But despite regular talks with the WA government and WA Police is weeks from making concrete decisions.

Amid continued fixture changes in the AFLW fixture _ including more postponed games on Tuesday _ the league is desperately hoping WA premier Mark McGowan opens the hard border to allow WA teams to fly out by mid-March.

Already West Coast’s official practice match against Adelaide in the last fortnight of February is on incredibly shaking ground, with the Eagles and Dockers set to play an AAMI Series clash on March 6.

But a league that has spent two years navigating incredible challenges involving multiple states with closed borders and evacuating every Melbourne team on hours notice has only one problem state this season.

The most likely outcome if West Australia’s border remains shut by March 20 is Fremantle and West Coast spending several weeks on the road in the early rounds of the 2022 season.

West Coast coach Adam Simpson said two years of experience meant the Eagles were “more resilient” and prepared for change after early struggles in a Queensland hub.

The league has built strong working relationships with the WA government after Perth Stadium hosted last year’s Grand Final but an early fly-in fly-out model would be extremely challenging given McGowan’s hard-line stance.

West Coast is aware it would need to take huge squads to games in eastern states to cover for contingencies when player contracted Covid in the days leading into games.

They would also face challenges getting players back into Perth at short notice to play state-league games to keep them match-fit.

So until the border is completely open it might be more convenient for WA-based clubs to take entire squads to a hub in Melbourne or Sydney to train and play.

Premier Mark McGowan has continually created headaches for the AFL. Picture: Matt Jelonek

Many clubs on the eastern seaboard have had up to 20 players who have already contracted the omicron strain of Covid over summer and now have natural immunity.

So while there will invariably be postponed or rearranged games given player unavailability the league remains confident it can march ahead with the men’s season.

The current AFLW season has had significant upheaval but has continued to march ahead towards a conclusion.

The AFL is still some time from any decision on how many players would need to be Covid-affected for a men’s game to be postponed or how those players would be replaced.

Simpson said on Tuesday the Eagles were open to all possibilities for the upcoming season.

“There‘s been no communication at the moment, but we’re assuming there may be some change down the track. We’re expecting to play round one against Gold Coast and until we’re told otherwise, we’ll just keep planning for that,” he said.

In the pre-season competition we are meant to play Adelaide and then Fremantle and we will still prepare for that until we are told otherwise. We are a little bit more resilient now with what’s happened the last couple of years and more prepared for change, but we haven’t been told anything.”