AFL set to kickstart with regular round

The AFL is increasingly hopeful it can kickstart the year with a regular weekend round when the season roars back to life in June.

Melbourne and West Coast battle it out during Round 1 at Optus Stadium

The AFL is increasingly hopeful it can kickstart the year with a regular weekend fixture when the season roars back to life in June.

The need for hubs, which could cost the league $40m, is likely to be scrapped if states such as Victoria and West Australia ease border restrictions on Friday.

This would then allow fly-in, fly-out football and a 16-round season across 16 weekends before the finals.

The AFL has made it clear clubs will be handed a three-week pre-season, which would put it on track for a June 18 return at the earliest.

But clubs hoping they could start screening players ahead of a return to 10-man training groups next Monday were left disappointed on Tuesday night.

The league told club football bosses in a hook-up last night that it was still too early for Level B training — which includes six to 10 players training in no-contact situations.

It means the earliest date for group training would be May 18.

The league has made it clear all options are still on the table, and it could still choose to condense games when teams fly into various states to play interstate opposition.

The national cabinet met again in Canberra on Tuesday with Prime Minister Scott Morrison maintaining that the onus was on states to lift restrictions.

The clear challenge for the AFL is Western Australia given it’s likely to be the last state to relax restrictions.

Most matches will be from Thursday to Sunday with the prospect of some Wednesday games. Rounds 2 to 4, which had been expected to go ahead as originally programmed, will be redone along with the remainder of the 16 remaining rounds.

A fixture of 16 weekends of footy would allow clubs to play their stars every week rather than under a cycle of five-day breaks, which would force clubs to rest players.

Victoria’s escalation in COVID-19 positives in the past two days is also cause for concern but the AFL is still optimistic after recent talks it will be able to commence its season in June in Melbourne. Morrison said it was up to Victoria to ease restrictions as the league prepared for a return date in the week starting May 11.

“At the end of the day states have sovereignty over decisions that fall specifically within their domain,” he said.

Geelong coach Chris Scott even flagged clubs flying interstate on the morning of games yesterday to minimise the chances of contracting coronavirus.

Instead clubs will have to follow strict biosecurity measures that include daily temperature checks and regular COVID-19 tests to ensure players remain safe.

Some clubs have raised the possibility of whether clubs from some states would travel on the same weekend on chartered flights to lessen costs and the risk of infection.

For instance both Queensland teams might travel to Adelaide and play South Australian teams on the same weekend.

Brisbane football boss David Noble said the Lions had more strict protocols around biosecurity measures in Round 1 which would only be enhanced when play returned.

“We put some additional layers in place when we flew to Melbou­rne for Round 1 anyway,” he said.

“We will be discussing more stringent measures heading into Round 2. We put visitation hours in at the hotel, we had food services at the hotel, we pulled back guys going for coffees, there was no buying food at the airport.

“All those things mitigate risk and we would imagine we would be going through a similar thought process.”

Herald Sun