KEEPING FAITH

Clubs still hoping for Tassie AFL games

THE AFL has scheduled no games for Tasmania for the rest of the 2020 season, but still the league, Hawthorn and North Melbourne have not given up hope.

The AFL has given assurances to both the Roos and Hawks to reschedule each club’s last three home games in Hobart and Launceston respectively – should the Tasmanian Government lift border restrictions after August 31.

Hawthorn’s last three home games are against Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs both currently in Adelaide and the Gold Coast (venue and date to be confirmed), while North Melbourne hosts Port

Adelaide and Fremantle (Metricon Stadium) and West Coast (venue to be confirmed) in its final home games.

But all or some would be switched to Tasmania should the government give the green light, Hawks chief executive Justin Reeves said.

“If they do reopen the borders, we would love to play the games there but we are not going to try and force the Government to do anything,” Reeves said.

“They have got the best interests of the people and state forefront so if the borders reopen we’d love to be there.

“Until they do, unfortunately for us, it is out of the question.

“We’ve got three home games after that (August 31) and we would be able to transfer those three. The AFL have told us they would be keen to support that.”

The AFL scheduled two North Melbourne home games in Hobart last month, but then had to reschedule those fixtures after the Government kept the state’s borders closed for longer than originally planned due to the COVID outbreak interstate.

If the borders do reopen, the Hawks could be playing at a University of Tasmania Stadium with limited capacity due to social distancing requirements.

But Reeves said any games in Tasmania would be beneficial. “We’ve been there for 20 years, we are very familiar with Tassie, we’ve got 10,000 members there, we’d prefer to be in Tassie than South Australia,” he said.

“We’ve been in constant contact [with the Government], but we understand how busy they are and they are managing this as a health issue.

“We talk to them because they are our major partner and what we can do to work with them and to help them.”

An AFL spokesman said: “The AFL will continue to consider playing matches in Tasmania subject to border restrictions and subject to our various fixture constraints with the newly released block.”