Coronavirus: AFL cops fresh blow as Victoria extends restrictions

The AFL won’t be following the NRL back into action any time soon after a fresh blow to the league’s hopes of a season restart.

There are more tough times ahead for the AFL.

The AFL is unlikely to be starting up again any time soon after Premier Daniel Andrews extended Victoria’s state of emergency by another month until at least May 11.

That means strict social distancing measures and travel restrictions will remain in place for the foreseeable future in Aussie rules heartland, making a return to on-field action a fair way off.

The NRL has announced plans to resume playing on May 28 but with 10 of the 18 AFL clubs based in Victoria, the extension of restrictions and border lockdowns affecting interstate clubs means they are unlikely to follow suit.

The AFL has so far taken a cautious approach and hasn’t set a resumption date, saying it will be guided by government measures.

On Sunday Mr Andrews said while the decision was ultimately for the AFL, he feared there were “many weeks and months to go”.

“Many people would love to see footy back as soon as possible but that’s ultimately a matter for the AFL,” Mr Andrews said.

“Everyone wants to get our state back to something approaching normal, and footy is a really big and ­important part of the way our state functions.

“I do fear, though, that we have many weeks and months to go with quite extraordinary measures.”

There has been talk of the AFL restarting by splitting the competition into three, six-team “hubs” in lower-risk areas of infection like Adelaide, Perth and Tasmania so players can be more easily quarantined. But that proposal has received a mixed response.

Meanwhile, Collingwood chief executive Mark Anderson remains confident a “meaningful” AFL season will be completed and said rather than be distracted by the discussions around NRL, the AFL was taking a collaborative “industry-wide” approach to agree on what was best for their own game.

It could be a long time before we see this sight again.

“I haven’t focused too much on what NRL are doing … we’ve been very focused on what we are doing and the discussions and collaboration going on between AFL clubs has been brilliant,” Anderson told ABC Grandstand.

“Our people come first and we want to make sure that the environment and conditions are right to get going again.

“At the moment we don’t know when that is.”

He said the optimal plan was still to play the remaining 144 games plus finals but that a reduced format would still have value.

“There is confidence that we will get underway and have a meaningful season,” Anderson said.

“What I’ve really liked about the AFL approach is they are taking a flexible approach.

“Speaking from a Collingwood perspective, we’re absolutely open and flexible as to how we best deliver those 144 matches.

“How many matches is still a reasonable and a meaningful season – that’s the key question.

“We are living in the moment but we are very, very flexible around what structure we might get away and what the competition might look like.”

Anderson said the AFL and clubs still had to work through key details such as the soft salary cap, list sizes, and second-tier competitions. The AFL’s soft salary cap of $9.4 million per club, which covers football department spending, could be reduced by $3m next season.

“At the moment there’s a number of questions and not a lot of answers yet,” Anderson said.

“We understand we’re going to take a significant reduction into the football soft cap and every club will face that.”

Anderson said clubs and the league could work through those matters alongside the priority of restarting the competition.

“We’ve moved from the emergency phase and entered the second phase, when you’re getting your eyes up and looking at the competition and getting that away. Once that’s locked in, in parallel you can start to look at all of those (other) questions,” he said.