By Michael Gleeson and Sam McClure
Essendon’s opening round clash with Gold Coast has joined Thursday’s night’s Geelong-Brisbane season opener in being imperilled by Cyclone Alfred.
The AFL on Monday said it would not change the fixture for its grand opening round in the northern states unless the Queensland government said it was unsafe for the matches in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast to go ahead as planned.
Essendon are due to play Gold Coast on Saturday evening.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
However, contingency plans include the Lions-Cats clash being postponed until round three, when both teams have a bye. One proposal is for the Bombers’ match against the Suns to be played in Melbourne this weekend instead of on the Gold Coast at 5.15pm Saturday.
This is the second AFL season that has kicked off with an “opening round” in NSW and Queensland, an initiative designed to capitalise on the NRL’s round one trip to Las Vegas. There is no football scheduled for Melbourne this weekend, with Carlton and Richmond to open round 1 at the MCG on the night of Thursday March13.
The Suns and Bombers are due to face off again in round 17 at Marvel Stadium, theoretically allowing for the home and away clashes to be flipped should this weekend’s game not be able to go ahead in Queensland.
“Player and staff safety is our first second and third priority,” Essendon CEO Craig Vozzo said, after the Bombers trained with soaked footballs in Melbourne on Monday ahead of the anticipated conditions.
“We are in the hands of the AFL, the Queensland state government and Virgin airlines.”
The Queensland government is due to meet again on Tuesday to consider the tropical cyclone’s latest movements. The government has urged residents to stock up on canned food with extremely heavy rains forecast regardless of whether the worst of Cyclone Alfred hits the coast.
Geelong are due to fly to Queensland on Wednesday and Essendon on Friday. Club sources said that a decision could be taken out of the hands of the AFL and state authorities if Virgin Airlines was unable to fly in and out of the state.
A spokesman for the AFL said it had not yet received any such safety advice from the government, and that the Lions had not formally requested that their match be postponed.
Two club sources, not authorised to speak about contingency conversations, said the Lions were concerned that even if it was safe for the match to go ahead on Thursday night, the wild weather would hit crowd numbers for the unfurling of the premiership flag.
The category 2 storm was about 465 kilometres north-east of Brisbane and 410 kilometres east-north-east of Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast on Monday morning, and moving south about 10km/h.
The Lions are due to unfurl the premiership flag against Geelong on Thursday night.Credit: AFL Photos
At a press conference in Sydney, league boss Andrew Dillon would not commit to a deadline for a decision on whether the game went ahead as planned.
“There’s no actual deadline, it’s when we’re absolutely 100 per cent confident about what’s going to happen, then we’ll make the call then,” he said.
Asked whether a decision could be made as late as Thursday morning, he said it could come even later.
“We’ll continue to work with the bureau and the Queensland government about the forecast,” Dillon said.
“It’s already slightly changed in the last sort of 12 or 24 hours so, we’re three days out from the game, we’ll continue to work with the clubs, the broadcasters, but importantly, the bureau and the Queensland government on the game.
“For every game we have contingencies, and there are options with byes and the like, but at the moment, the game’s scheduled for Thursday night and the Lions are working towards that, as are Geelong and as are the AFL and Channel Seven.”
He said strong wind was the main safety concern for the league.
“It’ll be the health and safety of our players and our fans who will be the No.1 priority in any decision that we make,” he said.
with Jonathan Drennan and Emily Kaine
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