Industrial action forces AFL to change Hawks-Roos clash in Launceston to 12.30 start

The Hawks have it all to play for when they take on the Kangaroos in Launceston, and possible industrial action has forced the AFL to make a major change to the clash.

The AFL has been forced into a major revamp of its round 24 fixture with planned industrial action at its Launceston venue requiring the AFL to bring forward its Hawthorn v North Melbourne clash by over four hours.

The AFL will now start the scheduled 4.40pm Saturday twilight clash at 12.30pm to ensure it finishes in daylight after unions made clear they would not restore power in the event of blackout.

The Richmond-Gold Coast clash scheduled for 2.10pm has been pushed back to 3.20pm but will still feature a Dustin Martin farewell lap as the Tigers herald the changing of the guard.

It comes with the AFL facing so many finals permutations that it will only release the Week 1 finals fixture next Monday morning as it assesses its options.

The Hawks need to win to book a finals berth. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The AFL will again schedule a Thursday night final, a Friday night final and two Saturday contests.

The only certainty is that Brisbane will not host a Thursday elimination final because NRL rival Brisbane is hoisting fellow premiership contender Melbourne Storm on that night – Thursday 5 September.

The league would be open to ladder leaders Sydney hosting a Thursday qualifying final that would also give them the longest possible rest into a semi-final if they did lose in week one of the finals.

If Brisbane finished fifth it could then host a Friday night Gabba elimination final – on current ladder order against Carlton – which would link up the teams ranked 1v4 and 5v8 on one side of the finals draw.

On current ladder order the MCG would host only a single week one final with Hawthorn in the box seat for a home elimination final but so much can change across the weekend.

The league customarily releases its week one fixture on the Sunday night of the final home-and-away round.

But its fixturing team will instead assess its options including whether the Saturday afternoon final is a 3.20pm contest (like last year’s St Kilda GWS week one elimination final) or a twilight clash like its 2022 qualifying final between Geelong and Collingwood.

Sam Mitchell and Alastair Clarkson will clash with the Hawks’ finals hopes on the line. (Photo by Steve Bell/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

The fixture switch for this Saturday’s games ensures the league avoids the disastrous scenario of a blackout mid-game that would have to see the AFL calling off the Hawthorn-Roos contest.

Industrial action in Tasmania would have included a union-imposed “switching ban”, which would see workers not restoring power if there was an outage.

A picket line would mean unioned interstate workers could not be called in to take care of the situation should an issue arise.

There have been recent power outages in Launceston, so the threat of a cancelled game was a live factor in the AFL’s decision-making.

The AFL was finally able to restart a Gabba clash early last year between Melbourne and Brisbane after a fault caused by an underground cable malfunction was fixed, but only after a lengthy delay.

Hawthorn and North Melbourne are both in Tasmania and spent Friday preparing themselves for the game.

TasNetworks chief executive Sean McGoldrick told the ABC in a statement on Friday that “the power is on at the UTAS Stadium [York Park], and our network is secure”, but “due to CEPU union-led action, restoration to any unplanned outage is not guaranteed”.

Originally published as Industrial action forces AFL to change Hawks-Roos clash in Launceston to 12.30 start