Victoria COVID-19 crisis adds difficulty to AFL season
The AFL is investigating bolstering a West Australian hub as it deals with another huge hurdle to the 2020 season.
The AFL is investigating bolstering a West Australian hub as it deals with another huge hurdle to the 2020 season following the tightening of border restrictions in Queensland.
An extraordinary reshuffle of this weekend’s round of football is just one element of a broad range of changes the AFL will now embrace to continue a challenging season.
League chief executive Gillon McLachlan said the AFL could adopt a rolling fixture with tinkering almost daily in order to complete the final 118 games leading into finals.
It seems certain the grand final will now be pushed into November given the prospect that at least one bye will need to be scheduled to deal with quarantine restrictions. But the AFL boss is adamant the season will be completed, stating the league has developed plans to deal with any contingency.
This includes the prospect of teams being moved to a hub in the Northern Territory, for example.
“We have flexibility if we need to make change,” McLachlan said.
“At the moment, football is going ahead in (Victoria). Everyone knows that if there are challenges here, if we do need to respond, we can move. Clearly we will abide by the restrictions.
“The implications are being worked through at the moment. We are fixtured for this weekend and we will look ahead. The rolling fixture might be almost daily.”
The latest challenge comes as authorities from outside Victoria note with alarm a surge in active coronavirus cases.
With fears a second wave is hitting Melbourne after there were 75 new COVID-19 cases announced on Monday, other states have been left uneasy.
Queensland forced the hand of the AFL by announcing it would enforce a 14-day quarantine period for sides entering the state or competing against Victorian clubs.
Reigning premiers Richmond had been due to play West Coast on the Gold Coast on Thursday night. But Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale said McLachlan alerted him to an issue on Sunday night. “When I get a call from Gil at 11pm, my heart skips a beat a little bit because you fear the worst,” Gale said. “We have prepared for it. I got straight on the phone to the football team … and put the wheels in motion and adjusted accordingly.”
As a result, the Tigers will play Melbourne on Sunday and the Eagles will host the Swans, while St Kilda’s clash with Carlton has been bought forward to Thursday night. The postponement of Richmond’s game against West Coast opens the prospect of the Tigers heading west to stay in a hub in Perth with several other clubs.
Collingwood and Geelong are due to head to WA for a three-week stint from next weekend and will play each other while in quarantine before clashes against the Eagles and Dockers on alternate weekends.
Gale said Richmond was yet to be informed whether the Tigers would join the WA hub “with good reason”.
“We are not looking further ahead than one week at the moment, and even that can change,” he told SEN 1116. “What will be will be. As the coach has said on numerous occasions, we are an anywhere, anytime club and we will do what we have to do to ensure this season can be completed. We have been told that everyone is going to have to make sacrifices … just provided they are reasonable. This is unprecedented. We are learning as we go.”
The Gold Coast will still travel to Geelong on Saturday but could now return to Queensland via a two-week stint in NSW to play the Swans and Giants.
Suns half-back flanker Jack Bowes said after training on Monday the players were still to be informed about what lay ahead.
“I have not quite grasped what is going on yet, but there is a question about quarantine. From our point of view, we are only focused on this week playing the Cats,” he told The Australian.
Some experts suggest this season must be treated with an asterisk given the uneven circumstances clubs face. But McLachlan disputes the assessment. “This is just a different year. We are in a situation that is unprecedented in a century and we are going OK,” he said. “This overlay, I believe it deeply that this challenge off field, this resilience is going to show that whoever wins this year, they have to beat everyone on field, and they are going to be the toughest, strongest, most resilient group that is going to be able to deal with stuff like this. That is going to add something. People will have different views as to whether it is a positive or a negative. In my view, it is a positive.
“It means whoever wins this year is going to be exceptional.”
Travis Auld, the AFL’s executive in charge of the fixture, will spend the next 48 hours looking at Rounds 6, 7 and 8 and whether they need reconfigering.
He said it was now more likely the AFL would send teams that have to play in Queensland later in the year via NSW or South Australia, where they can complete a quarantine period while still playing matches. It was also possible that the model to be put in place in WA from Rd 7, when Collingwood and Geelong head west, could be deployed in Queensland.
“As we see it at the moment, we could send two non-Queensland teams up to Brisbane or the Gold Coast, seven days later they could play each other and then seven days after that they could play either (the Lions or Suns),” he said.
Round five has been revised.
— AFL (@AFL) June 29, 2020
Check out this weekend’s new footy fixture. pic.twitter.com/Jmy1dkPcxU
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