How AFL is working to ensure 2020 season can make it through COVID-19 crisis

Back to the drawing board! The South Australian government’s announcement that it will keep its borders closed to Victoria has forced the AFL’s hand, with two rounds to be redrawn. But an SA hub remains a possibility. And its tentative plans for Round 8 are being revisited as states clamp down on Victorians entering. Both South Australia and Queensland have today significantly strengthened their restrictions on Victorians – and even returning residents – entering their states, meaning plans have been thrown out the window to be reworked in coming days. The league is hopeful of announcing a fixture for Round 6 by the end of the week, and is continuing to work closely with state health authorities. It could yet be granted exemptions as is the case for the upcoming Western Australian hub where visiting teams will be part of a “secure quarantine arrangement”. Under its latest plan, the AFL – which has a range of contingency plans in place – will endeavour to have clubs cycle through various states every few weeks in an effort to get the remaining 118 games of the 2020 season played. All states and territories are considered options as locations, with Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland all allowing limited crowds to sporting events. Gold Coast will travel to Geelong to play the Cats this weekend but will not be permitted to return directly to Queensland, while Adelaide and Port Adelaide had planned to return to SA after playing in Melbourne in Round 7, which under current restrictions will not be possible. League clubs and broadcasting boss Travis Auld has flagged clubs taking a long route home in order to serve quarantine requirements, saying Gold Coast could return north via games in NSW or elsewhere to satisfy health officials. SA HUB CAN STILL HAPPEN DESPITE CLOSURES South Australian sports minister Corey Wingard says Victorian AFL Clubs could be allowed to play games in Adelaide despite the border reopening being scrapped if they quarantine for 14 days in another state. He has also flagged a possible SA hub involving Victorian teams if the AFL can convince SA Health. The SA Government announced it will scrap a planned July 20 reopening of its Victorian border after a rise in COVID-19 cases in Melbourne. This will mean Adelaide and Port Adelaide’s scheduled Round 7 matches in Melbourne are extremely likely have to be moved from Victoria as the Crows and Power would have to quarantine for 14 days in SA upon their return. But Mr Wingard said Victorian teams could be allowed in SA for games if they satisfy certain SA Health guidelines. “If they head to WA and play out of a bubble there and quarantine in a bubble in WA before coming through Adelaide that would be something Health would have to look at but it is something that could be on the cards,” he said on SEN. “Teams coming via Sydney to South Australia they would have to have quarantined for 14 days before coming to Adelaide, that would be the strong consideration there.” GWS, who Port Adelaide are scheduled to play in Round 6, and Sydney, who the Crows played in Round 1, will be allowed to fly in to SA without any quarantine requirements with a planned reopening of the NSW border to go ahead as planned. But with the two SA clubs needing to play every Victorian club in the 2020 season Mr Wingard said Adelaide could become a hub to get these games away. But again they would need to have satisfied the SA Health conditions. “That will be something that has to be worked through with health,” he said. “I wouldn’t be ruling anything in or out.” SEASON IN JEOPARDY AFTER SA KEEPS BORDERS CLOSED The AFL is scrambling to keep the season alive as rival states pull down the shutters on Victoria and its deepening COVID-19 crisis. This weekend’s fixture has been dramatically reshaped after the Queensland Government banned all contact with Melbourne clubs unless they have served a 14-day quarantine stint. They were on Tuesday joined by the South Australian government, who will keep its borders closed to Victoria amid its worsening COVID-19 tally. Both SA clubs were due to play their round 7 games at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on July 18 and 19 with the borders between the states originally set to re-open on July 20. The news means that if the AFL presses ahead with playing Adelaide and Port Adelaide games in Melbourne, both clubs will be forced to quarantine for 14 days on their return to SA. On Monday, Crows chief executive office Andrew Fagan said the club was already preparing contingencies for changes to their fixture. “We are clearly in uncharted territory and not just as an industry, but as a society,” he said. “The health of all Australians is the priority and we will continue to listen to the advice of governments and medical experts, plan for contingencies and be flexible if and when things change.” Port Adelaide and the Crows have played their past two games inside the Queensland hub and are due to return to SA after round five this weekend, before flying back to the Gold Coast for round six. SA Premier Steven Marshall said “we know this will have a dramatic effect on the AFL”. “Any teams coming in from Victoria to South Australia will have to do two weeks of isolation,” he said. “Any South Australian team that is coming back from Victoria or goes to Victoria to play a team (there) will have to do that two weeks of isolation on return to our state.” The league has been forced to explore a series of complex fixturing manoeuvres to ensure the season’s remaining 118-games can go ahead. SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE NEW ROUND 5 FIXTURE New South Wales has emerged as a key stepping stone to help clubs dodge tightening interstate border restrictions. Port Adelaide’s head of football, Chris Davies said he was unsurprised by the SA Government’s decision to keep the borders closed indefinitely. “My reaction is probably that it was inevitable, once the numbers in Victoria climbed as we’ve seen over the last few days,” he said. “Out understanding is that our time at the moment in this (Gold Coast) hub ends after our game on Saturday night, we’ll head home, and the remainder of the fixture obviously the AFL will work through over the next couple of days.” Davies said considering SA’s low COVID-19 tally, he wouldn’t be surprised if the AFL was looking at how it could fixture games at Adelaide Oval. He said he would support a hub in SA if that was what it took to get the season finished. “(But it) doesn’t really fuss me, whatever the Victorian teams need to do to get over to Adelaide and play needs to happen,” he said. “Clearly we want to play footy in front of our fans and South Australia right now is a place where people can actually get to the footy, so I imagine the AFL are looking to get teams to Adelaide in order to play in front of crowds as well, I think that’s really important right now.” ROUND 5 FIXTURE CHANGED Thursday night’s West Coast-Richmond clash at Metricon Stadium has been postponed, with the Tigers to instead play Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday, while West Coast will meet the Swans on the Gold Coast on Saturday. Saturday’s Carlton-St Kilda match has been switched from Saturday to Thursday night. Gold Coast Suns will still travel to Geelong to play the Cats on Saturday in a twilight fixture for Gary Ablett’s 350th game, but could be forced to either stay in Victoria to play Hawthorn or return home via Sydney and play games against the Swans and Giants. It means the Suns could serve the majority of their home state’s two-week quarantine requirements in NSW before continuing their season at home. Under a more radical scenario, which could leave Victoria footy-free for a period of weeks, the league could set up separate hubs for a large number of teams in NSW, Perth and even the Northern Territory. It is hoped the “cycling” of teams through interstate hubs will help keep the season rolling until Victoria gets on top of its coronavirus issues in the second half of the season. Geelong and Collingwood will most likely spend more than three weeks on the road with their WA hub potentially extended into other states before they return to Victoria. “If you look at Geelong and Collingwood for example, they’ll go to WA for three weeks, they may come back via one of the other states now,” League boss of clubs and broadcasting Travis Auld said. “They may not come back into Victoria straight away. They could come back via NSW, might come back via Queensland, we’ve got that optionality that we need to explore.” Auld revealed on Monday night the AFL is set to explore what he said was “a probability” to send two Victorian clubs to Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales or Queensland – and potentially all at once. MORE AFL: League boss Gillon McLachlan said on Monday the rolling fixture could be revisited “daily”. “We’ve got a fixture for this weekend. And we’ll look ahead. The rolling fixture might be sort of daily,” he said. “We have got 118 games to get away. We can compress, we can move, we can — if we need to — have a bye to reset. As we look ahead, I don’t think we need to do that, but we’ve got options. That’s what this is about. “We had a great run across the country, we’re having a tougher period in Victoria at the moment.” The league boss said they were communicating with the players’ association in relation to the potential for further hubs. “People understand that there’s going to be sacrifices made to get this season away,” he said. “The restrictions in hubs are getting less and less in other states, so we can be a bit more flexible with it. “All states and territories are an option, absolutely,” Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale said the Tigers would embrace any hub challenge it confronted. “You do have to accept. Every team will have to make sacrifices,” Gale said. “We will do what we have to do to ensure the season gets completed.”