Umpires go into isolation to pave way for Showdown

The AFL’s will deliver footy’s greatest prime time fixture starting with three marquee Round 2 clashes and regular Sunday night games.

Port Adelaide’s Tom Jonas and Crow Rory Sloane will feature in the Showdown Picture: Sarah Reed

The AFL’s once-in-a-century crisis will allow it to deliver footy’s greatest prime time fixture starting with three marquee Round 2 clashes and regular Sunday night football.

The selflessness of four umpires prepared to isolate for 14 days in South Australia has paved the way for a Round 2 Showdown.

Those umpires will isolate from late this week after being allowed to train daily before a likely Showdown on Saturday, July 13.

That breakthrough with the South Australian government will allow the league to fixture Collingwood-Richmond, Hawthorn-Geelong and a Showdown in the round starting June 11.

The first four weeks of that fixture, to be announced on Monday, also includes regular triple-headers on Sunday with an early game leading straight into a mid-afternoon free-to-air clash and a Sunday night game starting after 6pm.

With Thursday and Friday night football weekly, Saturdays will feature an early clash, a strong twilight fixture then two Saturday night games.

The mouth-watering GWS-Western Bulldogs clash is set to be a prime-time feature of Round 4.

But the league’s determination to drip-feed the fixture in four week blocks will effectively hand it a floating fixture for the entire year that can see it hand-pick Thursday and Friday games only weeks ahead.

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With no crowds at games, at least in the early rounds, the league can schedule the two best games of the weekend in Thursday and Friday night slots.

The league will be keen to minimise five-day breaks, but teams such as St Kilda and North Melbourne could play themselves into contention for more marquee games. Both were allocated only one Thursday or Friday clash in last October’s fixture, which has since been shortened to 17 rounds.

On the flip side, teams such as Essendon (six Thursday and Friday games) and the Western Bulldogs (five marquee games) will have to prove they are worthy of those slots again.

As one club boss said on Sunday: “Your destiny will be in your own hands.”

A Round 2 fixture with Richmond-Collingwood on Thursday June 11 and Geelong-Hawthorn on June 12 would indicate the AFL going back to its tried-and-true rivalries to kickstart the season.

Geelong captain Joel Selwood said on Sunday he couldn’t be more excited that a massive Geelong-Hawthorn clash was on the cards.

“To be honest I am hopeful it is. It is exciting enough that it’s Round 2 with a big lay-off but if it’s against the Hawks it makes it even more special,” he said.

Four AFL umpires will travel to Adelaide and undergo strict 14-day isolation so they can umpire a single game.

The AFL’s umpires were desperate to help the season get under way, with many putting their hand up to subject themselves to 14 days of isolation.

The AFL’s only two umpires based in Adelaide — which has strict border measures — are rookies who are yet to umpire a senior game.

AFL Umpires association boss Rob Kerr confirmed the umpires were determined to do whatever it took to help the AFL resume its season.

He would not reveal which umpires were heading into isolation, with the officials needing to be out of isolation and testing negative for COVID-19 the day before they umpire that clash.

“We have been pretty flexible all along and have taken the position that we are keen to get help get the game back on track,” he said. “They need to have finished isolation the day before the game.”

There are AFL goal and boundary umpires in South Australia, so only field umpires will enter isolation.