Crows and Port Adelaide set for Showdown before hitting road

Adelaide and Port Adelaide are preparing to hit the road as the AFL zeros in on a new fixture to reignite the 2020 season.

Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas left, and Adelaide skipper Rory Sloane at Adelaide Oval. The Power and the Crows could play a Round 2 Showdown when the AFL restarts. Picture: Sarah Reed

Adelaide and Port Adelaide are preparing to hit the road as the AFL prepares to lock in a new fixture to reignite the 2020 season.

In what looms as D-Day, the AFL Commission will meet on Monday to finalise its return-to-play date.

Its decision will come after the Victorian government provides an update to its COVID-19 ­restrictions, paving the way for the AFL to reveal its plan for the rest of the season, which has been shut down since round one.

The league is likely to resume next month, possibly as early as June 11.

But the new fixture is sure to be heavily compromised, with South Australia’s tight border restrictions and coronavirus quarantine protocols meaning the Crows and Power could be forced to play a chunk of early-season return games on the road before finishing with a string of home matches at Adelaide Oval.

This could either be under a fly-in, fly-out model or a short ­period in quarantine in Victoria.

“It’s a fairly complex process that the AFL is working through, they are trying to achieve a ­national solution in the background of having all the local ­restrictions,’’ said Adelaide head of football Adam Kelly, whose club is still waiting to discover its penalty for breaching AFL coronavirus training protocols last week.

“We understand it is a very complex situation they are dealing with and they’ll make decisions with the best of intent and equity but some of that is just going to be compromised.

“Whatever the case will be, we’ll be there giving our best and we certainly won’t be bemoaning any decisions that are made ­because we understand how very complex it is.’’

The Crows played their opening round match against Sydney at home, losing by three points, while the Power thumped Gold Coast at Queensland’s Metricon Stadium by 47 points.

Adelaide and Port Adelaide could play a round two Showdown at home — they were originally scheduled to meet on March 28 — before hitting the road.

Crows coach Matthew Nicks said his club’s preference was to play under a regular home-and-away model but he understood this might not be possible.

“We are 100 per cent flexible and we’ll do whatever it takes from here to play footy,’’ he said.

“If that means we’re forced to play away from home for a month or two months at the start of the season and maybe we can make that up later in the season, it will get done, whatever the AFL need us to do.”

Port chairman David Koch said his club would support South Australian Premier Steven Marshall’s desire to ensure infection rates remained low in the state.

“The first couple of weeks we may have to play away and not play at home, that’s just part of the right path for South Australia to take,” Koch said.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Sunday said he expected the AFL to resume “pretty soon’’, adding the league had worked “incredibly well in laying out a pathway” for a return.

Marshall also offered a glimmer of hope that — depending when the season restarted — the Crows and Power could be given a green light to host games at Adelaide Oval earlier than expected.

“It really depends on when games resume and what the level of community transmissions and new cases are in those other states,’’ Marshall told Sky Sunday Agenda.

“If it (the AFL) was up and running today, then I think South Australian teams would be playing those first games interstate.

“If it happens later, community transmissions come down, it could be a different model.

“It would be great to see the Adelaide Oval up and running again.’’

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