The AFL will continue to negotiate with various state governments in a bid to secure a prompt return to uniform full training, while its clubs will make tough calls on their football department staff.
An announcement on returning to train and play dates will come this week, potentially as early as Wednesday.
The AFL has already ordered all players and staff to undergo coronavirus tests this week ahead of a planned return to group training, with an expected June season restart.
Victorian clubs already have a state government exemption to return to full training – including contact – while clubs in NSW and Queensland are expected to receive similar exemptions in line with those granted to their NRL counterparts.
It means plans to progress beyond players training in pairs hinge on yet-to-be-granted training exemptions from the South Australian and Western Australian governments.
Those clubs will also need to secure state government permission to fly in and out of their bases for matches without serving mandatory quarantine periods upon re-entry, otherwise they could have to temporarily relocate their operations.
As part of strict return-to-play rules, players have been banned from featuring in their affiliated second-tier competitions.
The AFL is considering allowing players who aren’t selected for games to participate in scratch matches against other AFL clubs in a controlled environment.
Meanwhile AFL clubs will have to quickly make tough decisions on their football department staff.
The clubs have been told to reduce football department spending by 40 per cent, while staff numbers will be capped at 24 and must include a doctor, player development manager and psychologist.
Clubs stood down the majority of their staff when football was suspended, and the reduced numbers mean some of those will not return when full training resumes – and potentially beyond then.
Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew said the Suns would have to cut down from “upwards of 40” staff members – many of whom usually juggle AFL commitments with AFLW and academy duties.
“From 4pm today roughly through to tomorrow we’ll be speaking to all our staff and what that looks like,” Dew told Fox Footy Live on Tuesday night.
“There’s some hard decisions to make and you wear that with heavy hearts at different times because there’s some good people who are going to miss out on standing back up in this period and we’re unsure of how long this particular headcount will last and what that means.”
