AFL wading through messy state of play amid plans to release revamped fixture Wednesday
The AFL wants to release a revamped footy fixture as soon as Wednesday, but its plans have been complicated by the minefield of different quarantine rules in the different states. Michael Warner and Lauren Wood with the latest.
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The AFL is caught in a tangle of interstate red tape in its bid to restart the 2020 season.
A revamped footy fixture is expected to be unveiled on Wednesday but it remains unclear when all 18 clubs will be permitted to return to full contact training.
Premier Daniel Andrews gave the 10 Victorian clubs the green light to hit the track, but tougher regulations in four other states are hampering the immediate comeback plan.
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AFL players in NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia are not yet permitted by governments to train as a team, and full contact training could yet be some weeks away.
The league is committed to ensuring that no club gains a competitive advantage and has instructed players to train only in pairs until further notice.
The South Australian Government has still not informed the AFL whether it will grant special exemptions to Port Adelaide and the Adelaide Crows that would allow them to bypass strict 14-day quarantine rules and fly in and out of the state for matches.
SA health authorities remain concerned about players coming into physical contact with infected opposition players and bringing the coronavirus back into the state.
“The chief public health officer has been forwarded correspondence from the AFL and is working through a response,” a SA Government spokesperson said last night.
The AFL commission convened via video conference yesterday to tick off the league’s return-to-play protocols with hope of a season resumption in mid-June.
“We thank the Victorian Government for giving approval for full contact training for Victorian teams at their club training bases and paving the way for a return to football,” an AFL spokesperson said.
“The AFL is still enforcing the current national AFL protocols for all clubs which restricts training to only two players at a time while it continues to finalise its arrangements on its return to play model, to be announced in the coming days.”
Hundreds of club and AFL staff – who were stood down until at least May 31 – are waiting anxiously to learn their fate.
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Tough border restrictions in Western Australia means the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle will almost certainly be forced to relocate to an eastern state to start the season, with interstate clubs banned from entering WA and SA.
Logistically, it would be preferred that the two Perth clubs were based in Melbourne but the facilities and better weather on offer on the Gold Coast also have strong appeal.
In a further complication, up to a quarter of the Eagles’ list remain in quarantine in Perth with several not due for release until May 21, though it is understood that their lockdown would not halt the league’s restart plans.
Port Adelaide also still has players in quarantine.
In one scenario, if the Crows and Power are forced to relocate, fourteen of the AFL’s 18 clubs could be based in Victoria for the beginning of the season.
Tasmania is not interested in hosting matches while crowds are banned.
An abridged fixture to be released Wednesday will only detail the first few rounds of action, giving flexibility for scheduling in the back half of the season.
Victoria’s state of emergency was yesterday extended for another three weeks, but Premier Andrews confirmed he had loosened restrictions on professional sporting teams more than any other state.
He said players can train fully together, as long as the club facility is completely private and access strictly governed.
“Once training is up and running again, that paves the way for the AFL and other codes to make announcements,” Andrews said.
“Training resuming is a way for footy to be back, and I think we all want that, provided it is safe, appropriate and can be done in a cautious way. And I’m confident that it can be.”
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He said that professional sport was considered a workplace, and that the government had a “very positive partnership” with the AFL and other codes.
“Each sport … will put in place their own plans,” he said.
“But they must be self-contained. So if they are using a training facility or an indoor gym or an outdoor area, it must be exclusively for them. We can’t have a situation where there is a carve-out for professional sport because it’s a workplace, because it’s basically a job, we can’t have a carve-out and then have other people not connected to that sport intermingling.
“It’s been a very positive partnership, not just with footy, but with rugby league, other codes, and To the extent that they can’t, the notion of having it exclusively for that team, for that code, protects the rest of us.”
The AIS Framework for Rebooting Sport determined that teams should stagger their return to training, starting in small groups before working up to full group training with contact.
Originally published as AFL wading through messy state of play amid plans to release revamped fixture Wednesday
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