AFL’s preference is to burst the bubbles

National Cabinet meeting holds key to AFL’s plans to resuming 200 season.

AFL Players Association chief executive Paul Marsh. Picture: AAP

A series of meetings around Australia on Friday will be crucial to the AFL’s ability to finetune its plans for a resumption of the 2020 season, amid some hope that the need to use hubs can be avoided.

A gathering of Australia’s National Cabinet will consider an array of industries affected by the COVID-19 restrictions, including professional sporting codes such as the AFL and NRL.

As it works towards making an announcement in mid-May, the AFL has provided a summary of its latest thinking to restart the season.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy and his state counterparts are also assessing the health protocol provided by the AFL, which is keen to safeguard its participants and the broader community from the deadly virus.

The AFL Players Association will also ramp up meetings with various stakeholders as it seeks to find common ground with the league on a preferred way to resume the season.

Footballers were shocked on Tuesday when informed by the players’ union that they might need to spend up to 20 weeks in hubs to complete the season.

But the AFL is considering several models and the case presented by the AFLPA is considered the worst-case scenario aside from the complete suspension of the season.

The preferred option is to charter individual flights for sides to enable the 17-round season to progress in a more orderly fashion. This is reliant on the easing of border restrictions that would minimise or make redundant quarantine measures. That scenario would be far more cost-effective for the league and also more palatable for players in terms of reducing the interruption to their lives.

It is certain the AFL will seek an exemption for clubs under travel provisions related to elite sporting personnel should the option be available.

The union will seek to find common ground with the AFL in coming days with a view to a decision being reached before the week beginning May 10.

AFLPA chief executive Paul Marsh is adamant there is enough time to reach a solution that satisfies all parties

“I think what we have done in the last few months shows that you can solve incredibly complex problems in quick spaces of time,” Marsh said. “What I think we have always been able to do with the AFL is work through issues to get to an outcome. I am optimistic about being able to work through the issues.”

The footballers’ union defended itself against criticism from Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, who accused the AFLPA of scaremongering in relation to Tuesday’s briefing.

McGuire, who is a member of the AFL’s coronavirus committee, described the prospect of players having to spend up to five months in hubs as “complete rubbish”.

But Marsh stressed this was the sole option provided by the league, while AFLPA president Patrick Dangerfield said the body had a duty to present the scenario to members.

The AFLPA said it was not in a position to disclose whether there were players who would opt out of entering hubs should this scenario be the option to complete the season.

“Like any discussion of this nature, we are both going to have our pain points and we both have to work through them,” Marsh said. “Clearly the AFL industry needs the players to get season 2020 away and the players will need certain things in order to do that. That is really the conversation. Jumping to how many players will go in, we see what the AFL has put to us as the starting point, not the end point, and we need to get to an end point.

“Like everything we do, we want to find a collective solution that the players are going to be happy with.”