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BREAKING: AFL 2020 season suspended

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The 2020 AFL season is now suspended until after May 31st, after just one round as the new travel restrictions annd border closures come into effect from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 AFLW season is now cancelled, with no premiership to be awarded.

On Sunday morning Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the latest raft of drastic measures to counter the further outbreak of COVID-19 , including all non-essential travel, and the endorsement of the states issuing their own border-shutdowns, many AFL clubs felt the season had to be stopped.

This afternoon clubs were informed of the AFL Commission’s decision. The Hawthorn-Brisbane and West Coast-Melbourne games will be completed to finish off round one.

Monaco GP cancelled, Dutch and Spanish GP’s postponed

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Brendan Lines     March 20, 2020

Formula 1 has today announced the Dutch and Spanish Grands Prix have been postponed, while the Monaco Grand Prix has been cancelled as the epicentre COVID-19 pandemic grips mainland Europe. The news follows the previous decision postpone the Chinese, Bahrain and Vietnam Grand Prix.

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Image: F1.com

The  postponement and cancellation of the season’e first European races will delay the start of the season for now, until the Azerbaijan Grand Prix set for June 5-7.

A statement from Formula 1 reads:

“Formula 1, the FIA and the three promoters have taken these decisions in order to ensure the health and safety of the travelling staff, championship participants and fans, which remains our primary concern,” it said.

The promoters of the affected races will now monitor the COVID-19 situation to find viable alternative dates to the for each Grand Prix later in the year.

The Automobile Club de Monaco, the organisers of the Monaco Grand Prix, on Monday were still operating under the principality’s special exceptions for work to continue in building the 3.3km street circuit.

However overnight the Automobile Club de Monaco said the event was ‘no longer tenable.” The Monaco Grand Prix has been a continuous part of the Formula 1 calendar since 1950 and this event event would have been the 78th running of the Monaco race, first held in 1929. 

A statement from the Automobile Club de Monaco read:

“The current situation concerning the worldwide pandemic and its unknown path of evolution, the lack of understanding as to the impact on the FIA F1 World Championship 2020, the uncertainty with regards to the participation of the teams, the consequences with regards to the differing measures of confinement as taken by various governments worldwide, the multi-border restrictions for accessing the Principality of Monaco, the pressure on all implicated businesses, their dedicated staff who are unable to undertake the necessary installations, the availability of the indispensable workforce and volunteers (more than 1500) required for the success of the event means that the situation is no longer tenable.

“As a result, and after careful consideration as to the gravity of this crisis worldwide, it is with great sadness that the AUTOMOBILE CLUB DE MONACO Board of Directors has taken the decision to cancel the 12th GRAND PRIX DE MONACO HISTORIQUE (8-10 May 2020) and the 78th GRAND PRIX DE MONACO FORMULA 1, FIA World Championship (21-24 May 2020).

“To all the fans, spectators, partners and our members, the Board of Directors wishes to express its sincere regrets that these two events cannot be postponed and under no circumstances, will it be possible to organise these events later this year.”

The FIA has also made a decision to delay the sport’s new regulations until 2022.

Dixon out, debutant in, Hinkley says shortened games ‘good news’ ahead of Suns clash

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Brendan Lines. March 19, 2020

Port Adelaide Coach Ken Hinkley will give forward Mitch Georgiades his AFL debut for this weekend’s Round-one season opener against the Gold Coast Suns. Today Hinkley spoke about Port Adelaide’s approach to what is the most unusual season, before a ball has even been bounced.

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Image: Adelaide Now

Hinkley had his is own spin on the ‘unusual’ situation as the COVID-19 pandemic shrouds the season’s opening round.

“Everyone works really hard to keep the environment up-and-about and up-beat, it’s really easy for us, if we can take away the coronavirus stuff, it’s round one, you don’t get much more excited that you do in any footy season normally than before round one,” he said.

As the AFL’s revised 17-round season kicks-off tonight it will be the first look at the new 16-minute quarter format, which Hinkley says is ‘good news’ for the game’s speed, taking near twenty per-cent off game time.

“You’re dealing with similar rotations, similar numbers on the bench, I think that would be really good for the game, to be honest it’ll create some genuine speed in the game and keep the speed there a bit longer,” he said.

The factor of speed does weigh into the equation for Hinkley as the Suns’ pre-season form has been strong around fast ball movement and ability to hunt the opposition.

Hinkley is happy enough that the Power’s forward efficiency will be enough to counter the Suns, given Port’s good form in the Marsh Cup.

“Our pre-season has been really strong, we’re really happy what we’ve been able to do against two quality sides, we’re coming up against a side that’s in equally as good form as us on their home deck, so we’re going to have to be really sharp with our efficiency going forward,” he said

The caveat on that efficiency will be the absence of key-forward Charlie Dixon, who will not play as a result of an adductor injury that has not met the teams liking, forcing Hinkley to take a ‘no risk’ approach.

“It’s an adductor injury we thought would be fine, normally they are, but unfortunately for Charlie he’s not up to the speed we need him too, he’s not too far away, but we couldn’t take a risk being Round one,” he said.

Dixon’s omission opens up the opportunity for Brad Ebert to come back in the side, but does put Port Adelaide back into the position it was last year without a key-forward, albeit with slightly more optimism about Dixon’s return.

Hinkley also indicated that Jackson Mead will still not be up for selection for at least another two weeks due to a Hamstring injury.

The question over availability and match fitness of SANFL players given their season’s postponement, will not allow any look at true form, Hinkley says for now that situation is ‘not too bad.’

“So I think early season we’re ok as the season goes on and how long that will continue for, we’re going to have to manage that the way can, and that will be to get opportunity to have those [SANFL] boys compete as much as we possibly can,

“It’s not perfect but we understand and our players understand that obligation and that is to train and perform at our best, when there’s a chance,” he said.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan’s possible inclusion of a supplementary playing list to be available to the clubs through a ‘mini draft,’ is yet to have details released, but it can only raise the question of; eventually there may be an imbalance of players fit to make the transition to AFL.

Hinckley expressed right now the playing group is comfortable for the season to go ahead behind closed doors and outlined the precautionary measures travelling to the Gold Coast.

“We will have a chartered flight that will basically be us and our staff alone on that flight, we’ll fly up there tomorrow [Friday] and we’ll stay in a normal hotel which has some isolation around the floor we’re on,

“So there will be no outside contact and we’re as safe as we can possibly be, we’re doing everything we can do with the AFL support to make sure that is the thing we do well,” he said.

Suns v Port Adelaide kicks-off 7.10pm ACDT at Metricon Stadium

Supercars announce 14-round season from June

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Brendan Lines    March 18, 2020

Supercars CEO Sean Seamer has this morning updated the 2020 Supercars season to a 14-round calendar delaying any further racing until June in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the next rounds in Tasmania, Auckland and Perth have all been postponed until later in the year.

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Image- Supercars.com

The statement released this morning reads:

“Today, on behalf of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, I want to provide an update on our plan for managing the 2020 Championship during the months ahead.

We have been working diligently to assess all available options to ensure continuity of the Series.

Obviously, the situation is evolving, but we acknowledge the need to act decisively with the information we have at hand.

Our sport is a visceral experience and rather than run without crowds, we have decided, along with our key broadcast and government partners, to delay any further racing until June.

Tasmania, Auckland and Perth events will all be postponed until later in the year, not cancelled.

Fortunately, our calendar this year enables us to do this,” it said.

The Bathurst 1000 is set to proceed on it’s scheduled date, Supercars will communicate its plan with all stakeholders as to how they intend to lock in the event in due time.

Also this morning, Supercars series sponsor Virgin Airlines announced it has grounded international flights along with halving its domestic capacity.

So far the Winton Super400 is the next round on the current calendar that is unaffected set for June 5-7.

While some drivers had supported the idea of racing behind closed doors to a TV crowd, it seems fans will get an opportunity to see their Supercars favourites race an eSports Championship to be held between now and June.

For the teams it is a case of trying to keep business as normal as possible during the postponement.

Kelly Racing have taken to social media putting their full support behind Supercars decision to protect the health and safety of all involved.

Teams such as the Red Bull Holden Racing Team are remaining committed to their 2020 program, using their new-found time back at the factory to catch-up on development for the Bathurst-12 hour GT event.

Whincup ready for ‘curveball’ to 2020 season

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Brendan Lines 17 March, 2020

While Supercars’ decision around the COVID-19 pandemic effect on the 2020 season is pending, Seven-time series Champion Jamie Whincup says the Red Bull Holden Racing Team is pretty used to handling ‘curve-balls,’ Local Goals caught up with the champ, who is ‘social distancing’ back home in Brisbane, to give us an insight to the reaction and current state-of-play in the Red Bull Holden garage.

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Jamie Whincup – Image: Red Bull Content Pool

“Quite weird circumstances, we’re pretty used to that in sport, we’re used to just dodging curve-balls and expect the unexpected, we’ve pretty much thought we’d seen it all, but there’s always curve-ball around the corner,” Whincup says.

“It never fails to amaze us of what next could come up, motorsport is so exposed to all that stuff which makes the sport what it is.”

Despite what’s been described as ‘surreal’ scenes, in other reports last Friday, around the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix as a result of a McLaren Racing team member testing positive for COVID-19.

The subsequent cancellation of the Melbourne 400 round of Supercars, was met with quite the opposite scenes as Whincup describes it.

“We were waiting patiently for them [Supercars] to make the call.” Whincup says.

“When it did, we completely understand the situation and the governing bodies all getting together to go ‘hey we got to control this situation’ the best thing to do that is for everyone to just stop,

“We respect the government’s decision to ‘Hey let’s try to get it under control’ and that means stop sporting events for a short time,” Whincup says.

Whincup weighed in saying he’s fine with going racing behind closed doors to ensure the 2020 season can move forward.

“One hundred per-cent if we can race with or without fans, I think that’s the best way to do it, to be honest that’s probably the best strategy — at least for the next one — is to try make the event happen without fans, rather than the whole thing stop.”

“Behind closed doors that’s fine, our fanbase want to see car racing, if anything, if they’re at home and don’t really want to go out, what better way to be able to sit in front of the TV and turn the Foxtel on watch us guys do our thing,” Whincup says.

After a strong start to the 2020 season winning Race 1 from pole at the Adelaide 500 and showing pace out of the box in Melbourne. Whincup took one of two poles on offer with team-mate Shane van Gisbergen, before the eventual kibosh of the weekend.

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van Gisbergen and Whincup taking dual pole positions at Melbourne 400 – Image Red Bull Holden Racing Team.

Whincup says Triple Eight remains committed to its 2020 program and is using its time wisely now back at the factory.

“Because we’re committed to the Bathurst 12-hour, we’re a little bit back-logged to be honest with work involved or development, we’re using this time to really catch up on the areas that we’ve liked to have been a bit further forward in at this stage of the year,” Whincup says.

While there is a certain shroud of bleakness around the world of motorsport for the moment, as more events are postponed and cancelled with news overnight the 2020 Isle of Man has been cancelled.

Motorsport is no stranger to ‘weird circumstances’ as Whincup says, taking ‘curve-balls’ of the likes we are seeing in his stride, creates a much needed voice of calm to deal with what’s ahead. In what is very ‘fluid’ times for his team and for that matter, all the teams in the Supercars paddock.

AFL CEO ‘will get a season away’

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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.

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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.

Staying Power: Boak signs two-year deal

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Brendan Lines March 16, 2020

Port Adelaide midfielder Travis Boak has signed a two-year extension to his contract and will remain at Alberton until 2022.

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Image: PAFC

The announcement comes as Port Adelaide resigned 218-game veteren forward Robbie Gray last Friday.

Boak who is the club’s most experienced captain, has signalled the club’s recent move to consolidate experience to its list for the 2020 season.

“It’s an exciting time at the club and we have a seriously talented group that I am eager to stay a part of.

“I can’t wait to see what we can achieve together,” Boak said.

Port Adelaide General Manager – Football, Chris Davies, says Boak’s signing is crucial to the club’s success.

“He had a wonderful 2019 season and is in great shape to attack this coming season. Having someone of his quality as both a player and person will be important in our success,” he said.

Port Adelaide Senior Coach Ken Hinkley recently has pulled no punches as to the ability of his young side saying ‘we’re coming.’

While the AFL season is yet to take full shape amid the COVID-19 pandemic, all teams’ preparations have hit the reset button.

Yet any attempt of Port Adelaide’s claim to the 2020 flag will rely on the contribution from it’s current John Cahill medallist to bring home a potential premiership in its 150th year.

Port Adelaide shuts down engagements amid AFL COVID-19 advice

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Brendan Lines   13 March, 2020

The Port Adelaide Football Club has tonight shutdown all its external club engagements including club events and community programs until further notice.

See the source imageImage: PAFC

In a statement released by the club, Port Adelaide administration has taken advice from the AFL, Federal government and Australian Medical Association President Dr. Tony Bartone.

“Every day we delay in acting on the necessary need to reduce and cancel attendance we will see a significant increase,“ Dr Bartone said.

At this stage the club has no further information from the AFL as to how the season will play out past the current decision taken to play matches closed to the public until further notice.

Port Adelaide’s administration has been encouraged by the club with this information about the COVID-19 pandemic to work from home.

The Club has advised its membership counter at The Port Club and the Alberton Oval retail precinct will operate with increased hygiene precautions in place.

Port Adelaide members can expect the club will communicate with members and supporters in regard to specifics around their membership(s).

Earlier this evening AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan announced the AFL has implemented a working group to navigate the league through the COVID-19 pandemic in consultation with government health bodies.

The club extended its appreciation for the patience and understanding of its members.

AFL CEO moves on COVID-19 response

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Brendan Lines March 13, 2020

Tonight Australian Football League CEO Gillion McLachlan announced AFL and AFLW matches will not permit fans to attend matches due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan Image : AFL.com

The decision comes after talks with medical authorities across federal, state and territory Officers from 7am today, for the health and well-being of all involved.

“I am disappointed for our fans but we cannot put them in a situation that potentially jeopardises the health and well-being of the whole community,” McLachlan said.

The 2020 AFL season opener Richmond v Carlton at the MCG and the rest of the season will go ahead from Thursday night closed to the public.

The Geelong v North Melbourne AFLW match originally scheduled for tonight, March 13, will go ahead—but fans may choose to attend.

Going forward all AFLW matched will be closed to the public also.

Given the very fluid situation McLachlan said the decision may be revisited as the season progresses through the pandemic.

“We have said from the outset that we will rely on the advice of the medical experts who have been planning to deal with this situation for some time and we will continue to make decisions based on the advice of the Chief Medical Officers,” he said.

This could mean that the current schedule of matches may change as the AFL looks at fixture alternatives to ensure both AFL and AFLW seasons are completed.

The addition of games to bye rounds or mid-week ‘catch-up’ games may be an option.

Before today’s decision the AFL indicated that it would prefer to play all scheduled matches as part of its contingency, in order to honour major broadcasting contracts.

Players have signaled they are flexible to move with the AFL’sdecision, McLachlan says the league will offer support to the clubs.

“We will continue to provide clubs with protocols to assist with the health and safety of players, officials and supporters. As I said, the situation is fluid and the protocols will be updated regularly to reflect this.” he said.

Gray here to stay until 2021

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Brendan Lines  March 13, 2020

The Port Adelaide Football Club has today secured the services of its four-time All Australian forward Robbie Gray at least to the end of the 2021 season, delaying his unrestricted free-agency.

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After some interest from rival clubs over the trade period, Gray has reaffirmed his alignment with the club who drafted him in 2006.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity Port Adelaide has given me, and to extend my time here for another year is great for me and my family,” Gray said.

“We have a young and exciting list, and I’m eager to be a part of that for as long as possible.”

Gray 31, was sidelined in 2019 for near on a month after suffering a broken hand in 2019 against North Melbourne.

The signing has signalled Port Adelaide’s confidence in Gray who has impressed Port Adelaide’s General Manager – Football Chris Davies during pre-season.

“He’s had a strong pre-season, and has provided amazing assistance for our young group.

“We’re pleased he’ll remain at the club until at least the end of the 2021 season,” he said.

After Coach Ken Hinkley’s recently made ‘bullish’ statements that he can get the job done in Port Adelaide’s 150th year, Gray’s signing is essential experience.

A premiership in black, silver and teal is the only thing missing from Gray’s illustrious career to date.