AFL TO UNVEIL SEASON RESTART

Unknown hit on staff levels

THE AFL will today release its plan to relaunch the 2020 season after weeks of chaos and uncertainty.

League chiefs were last night aiming for a Collingwood-Richmond opener at the MCG in mid June but full-contact training will not resume for all 18 clubs until Monday, May 25.

Western Australian health officials yesterday granted permission for the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle to resume light training duties on Monday and full training the following week.

The two Perth teams will now stage a mini pre-season campaign at home before shifting to hubs on the Gold Coast.

But the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide will be forced to set up camp in southeast Queensland as early as next week because a state-wide ban on gathering of groups of more than 10 does not expire until June 8.

Six clubs will end up based in Queensland, including the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns, while it will be business as usual for the 10 Victorian clubs and two Sydney teams.

Royal Pines Golf Club on the Gold Coast has been identified as a potential hub for one or more of the four relocated teams.

And in a massive win for players, immediate families will be permitted to relocate to the hubs with Eagles, Dockers, Crows and Power players.

The AFL will cover the costs of putting up the families, who can stay for the duration of the clubs’ relocations.

The AFL Players’ Association has also ensured there are no restrictions on the number of listed players the four clubs can bring into the hubs.

Welfare and well-being services will also be provided.

The first part of the restarted AFL season will be played exclusively in the eastern states in the hope strict border restrictions in Western Australia and South Australia are relaxed after July.

North Melbourne and Hawthorn’s hopes of hosting games in Tasmania this year have faded with Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein saying his state would not be able to “accommodate” AFL football under its current border restrictions.

THE AFL is refusing to disclose how many staff it employs at its Docklands headquarters as the football industry braces for savage culls and cost cuts.

League staffing numbers are believed to have topped 400 several years ago, but an official head count is no longer divulged in the league’s annual report filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The most recent ASIC report, filed in February, revealed AFL staff wages totalled $115.6 million last financial year. The league’s 12-person executive team pocketed $10.56 million in combined salaries, an average of $880,000 a year.

AFL chiefs have started ordering clubs to slash their expenditure and announced on March 23 that they were embarking on “the difficult process” of a restructure of their own operations.

The league will inform the majority of its workforce in the coming days whether they will be returning to work on June 1.

Asked how many staff the league employed, how many had been stood down and how many were on JobKeeper, a spokesman said the AFL “has drastically reduced its workforce since announcing the postponement of the season”, with 80 per cent of staff continuing to be stood down, while the remaining skeleton staff were all on reduced hours and salary.

The AFL, a not-for-profit operation that pays no tax, said 90 per cent of staff at its offices in Queensland, NSW, Canberra and Tasmania — as well as AFL Victoria — also had been stood down.

AFL staff who were continuing to work had taken a minimum 20 per cent cut, the spokesman said, while others were earning 40-60 per cent less.

The league spokesman said AFL boss Gillon McLachlan had “gone on the record” explaining that he had taken the same pay cut as the players during the crisis — about 50 per cent if footy resumed and 70 per cent if it did not.

McLachlan’s salary was last publicly disclosed three years ago at $1.74 million.

In its statement on March 23, the AFL said “approximately 80 per cent” of its staff had been stood down until May 31.

“Those team members will be able to access their available annual leave and long service leave entitlements,” the statement said.