Players and staff are about to enter a three-week period of eat, sleep, play, fly and precious little else
In a season of unwanted firsts the AFL is set to charter yet more virgin territory when it crams 33 matches across 20 consecutive days, starting on Wednesday night when Western Bulldogs face Richmond at Metricon Stadium. For some, it is Christmas in July. For the AFL, it will go down as either a masterstroke of fixturing or a haphazard experiment that might bring the integrity of the competition into question.
There is common sense behind the radical move. With teams safely ensconced in hubs – and importantly for Victorian teams, away from Victoria – there is a groundswell in clubland to get on with it. In normal times, players have lives outside of football. Within the straitjacketed confines of Covid-19, however, players by necessity have been redefined by their day jobs. So they might as well play. The deal has been sweetened by the AFL allowing them to begin contract negotiations for 2021 and beyond, despite the fiscal uncertainties wrought by the pandemic.
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