Hawthorn General Manager of Football Graham Wright is expecting clubs to be able to organise scratch matches with players not picked at AFL level.
AFL clubs have pulled out of this year’s VFL given the COVID-19 risks, but 44-player lists means half of a roster would be sitting around if not selected.
Wright said league HQ was in early discussions regarding the issue.
“I’ve just gotten off a meeting with the AFL now where that has just started to be discussed and I think we’ll get some more information around that next week,” he told SEN’s Dwayne’s World.
“I would’ve thought with all the testing protocols and everything we’re going through with general living protocols that actually being able to play another team makes sense.
“I think that makes a lot of sense and it looks like we’ll be able to do that and I suppose for right now most clubs are relatively healthy so we should be able to get some games out whether they be curtain raisers or venues organised by the AFL, but hopefully we can get our players who are not selected into some games at least initially when most of the list will be relatively healthy.”
Clubs held practice matches of their own in the pre-season outside of the official pre-season competition where they made up their own structures for the games.
For instance, Carlton and Collingwood played a seven-period practice match that included two periods of essentially situational training drills in the lead up to Round 1.
Wright expects these scratch matches to be similar, with clubs in control of what they look like.
“I think it’ll be up to the clubs to decide. From what my understanding is, they haven’t finalised the details yet, but it’ll be up to the clubs who are playing each other to make those decisions,” he said.
“Whether you want to play 18-a-side- or 16-a-side or 20-minute quarters or 15-minute quarters, I think it’ll be up to those clubs to make that decision on what best suits them as to the availability of their players.”
North Melbourne star Shaun Higgins believes scratch matches will be a key part of the 2020 season and keeping the standard levels up.
“That would be great to get that across the line and I think that can benefit the game in many ways in keeping the standard up – when players come in they’re already been exposed to game situations and that’s key,” Higgins said.
“To have guys who have missed eight to 10 weeks by the time the season comes around combined with a whole pre-season and if you didn’t play in Round 1 you haven’t played in so long, so it’s important to get back into there and making sure players are staying in the mode of playing.”
AFL clubs have between 44 and 50 players on their lists in 2020, but Wright is expecting that number to reduce in coming years.
“I’d like to see it very similar to what it is now, but my understanding is that it looks like we are heading to some kind of reduction, it’s just a matter of what level and whether it’s a staged approach over a few years,” he said.
“From my perspective I’d like to think we can keep the 44, we’ve actually got 47 on our list at the moment with a Category B rookie … from that perspective I’d like to see it stay the same, but it seems like it will be reduced at some point.”