Brendan Lines March 16, 2020

AFL CEO Gillion McLachlan has said ‘we will get a season away’ in an announcement tonight slating a raft of changes to the league in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gillon McLachlan Image: AFL.com

In an update from Friday’s statement after advice from government health officials, McLachlan says the AFL season will now be played over 17 rounds.

“The decision we have made gives us flexibility across the 2020 year and we will stay closely in touch with government and health authorities as we face into the next few months,” McLachlan said.

“The state league competitions across the country VFL, SANFL, WAFL, NEFL, TSL men’s and womens’ and all national and star taken programs will delay the start of their seasons until the end of May.”

“The AFL season will be reduced to 17 rounds every team will play each other once,” he said.

Despite the new plan, McLachlan still left uncertainty over the season’s opening round and next round of AFLW.

“It continues to be a fluid situation, we’ve not made a final decision on the men’s and women’s commitment to this weekend,” he said.

“We have meetings with clubs players and industry partners in the next twenty-four hours, we are in constant contact with the clubs with the AFLPA (AFL Players Association), we’re hosting a phone conference with all men’s and women’s players tonight.”

McLachlan also slated the possible inclusion of supplementary playing list to be available to the clubs through a ‘mini draft.’

“We’re working through a range of ideas, including the idea of supplementary playing lists being available to clubs, players will be able to be selected from any state league across the country, further details to be released next week and a time set for a mini draft,” he said.

The AFL will also form a cabinet of club presidents to be chaired by AFL commission chairman Richard Goyder to assist with the league’s direction through the pandemic, to protect health, safety and livelihoods of the wider football industry.

McLachlan also outlined the AFL will be working closely to keep clubs financially viable though the challenging times.

The 2020 AFL season opener Richmond v Carlton at the MCG is still planned to ahead from Thursday night closed to the public at this time.