AFL set for season rescue mission after player tests positive

Teams teams could play in Perth, Darwin and Tasmania as the AFL seeks to avoid stricter lockdown conditions in Victoria.

Cleaners are seen working at The Hangar in Melbourne on Sunday. Picture: AAP

AFL teams could be flown across the country to play in Perth, Darwin and Tasmania as the league seeks to avoid stricter lockdown conditions in Victoria after an ­Essendon player tested positive to COVID-19.

The code is now scrambling to rethink its plans following confirmation Essendon’s Irish recruit Conor McKenna has contracted COVID-19 and as the Victorian government tightens restrictions after a spike in cases in the state.

Sunday’s match between Essendon and Melbourne was postponed until later in the season and McKenna and the eight team-mates who did a weights session with him on Friday could be forced to sit out the next two rounds in isolation. The AFL is considering relocating the two Sydney teams and some Victorian sides to a hub in Western Australia, which has only three active coronavirus cases.

The AFL’s general counsel, Andrew Dillon, has confirmed the league is also looking to schedule more games in Darwin, Canberra and Tasmania, pending an easing of border restrictions.

Basing clubs in hubs is a costly exercise but the prospect of thousands being able to attend matches in states beyond Victoria is an enticing proposition.

Up to 2000 fans were able to attend matches on the Gold Coast on Sunday between the Suns and Adelaide and Fremantle and Port Adelaide.

From next weekend, 10,000 fans will be able to attend NRL and AFL games in the state, Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said.

“The only thing better than having fans back at the football is having more fans back at the football,” he said.

“Queenslanders have earned this reward and earned their chance to go to the footy and I’m really pleased that they will be able to from next weekend.”

Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner was selling Darwin as an option midway through the season suspension, given crowds would be able to ­attend matches.

“Now that we have got advice on that, we’ll certainly look at how we might factor that into the ­fixture,” AFL fixture boss Travis Auld said.

WA’s strict border regulations forced West Coast and Fremantle to base in Queensland for the opening month of the season resumption, but the two clubs are keen to return home after round five in early July.

WA Premier Mark McGowan said the state was happy to host clubs from other states for a period if guidelines were followed.

“We are the safest place, I think, in Australia — maybe even the safest place in the world — so clearly if there is a hub arrangement, we have to have the very best of quarantine in place, but we are happy to have a hub as long as the arrangements are secure,” he said.

The AFL was due to release a fixture for July rounds on Monday but the McKenna positive, the postponement of Sunday’s match and WA border restrictions have complicated matters.

Mr Dillon said Essendon would still be required to play against Carlton on Saturday night should they have enough healthy players to field a team.

The league believes safety ­protocols that separate players into small training groups for most sessions minimise the risk of an entire squad being infected.

The season resumption is only two rounds old and already the AFL has suspended four players for breaching guidelines, with McKenna certain to be investigated.

McKenna’s attendance at an open house inspection is reportedly at the centre of an AFL investigation to determine how the Irish defender, who is asymptomatic, contracted the virus.