Anxious AFL prepared to be flexible over pre-season
THE AFL is considering major changes to the pre-season competition as it sweats on state borders reopening in time for round one.
The league has told clubs it may reduce the number of Community Series games from two to one to limit interstate travel.
League bosses are optimistic the regular season will proceed as normal amid hopes Western Australia will ease its strict border regulations after the March 13 state election.
It would be a huge boost for the AFL if the WA authorities give the green light for interstate teams to fly in and out of the state on match days ahead of the March 18 season-opener.
Gold Coast is still expecting to travel to Perth to play West Coast at Optus Stadium on March 21, while Fremantle plays
Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday, March 20.
The AFL is planning a raft of contingencies in the event further COVID-19 outbreaks across the country force teams to serve 14 days in quarantine and play multiple games on interstate road trips.
With the AFL pre-season series slated to start on February 18, clubs have been told they may only play one official pre-season game.
Melbourne and St Kilda are both scheduled to play practice matches in WA, while Essendon, North Melbourne, Adelaide, Carlton, Collingwood, Richmond, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide Sydney Swans and Greater Western Sydney are also scheduled to play interstate before round one.
A return to hubs in the regular season looms as a last resort after players and staff last year spent up to four months in hubs.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, a member of last year’s AFL “war cabinet”, said he wanted the season to start early.
“I’m not sure when it’s going to start or finish. I’ve been pushing, by the way, for it to start early,” McGuire said on radion station SEN.
“I reckon that the one thing we know about COVID, it’s (worse in the) cold.
“Why wait until it gets cold? Get going.”