Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has called on the AFL to bring forward the start date of the 2021 season.
Round 1 is scheduled to get underway on Thursday, March 18 with Richmond and Carlton meeting in the first footy game at the MCG with a crowd since the 2019 AFL Grand Final.
With the ever-changing nature of the COVID-19 landscape in Australia and the constant threat of changes to border rules, McGuire believes it’s worth jumping ahead and getting games away while things are mostly under control.
“I’m not sure when it’s going to start or finish. I’ve been pushing, by the way, for it to start early,” McGuire told SEN SA Breakfast.
“I reckon that the one thing we know about COVID, it’s cold. Why wait until it gets cold? Get going.
“We’ve got no Grand Prix’s or things. March would be a good time to get started, I would have thought.
“But they’re all discussions that I’m sure are happening.”
Western Australia once again looms as the season’s biggest obstacle.
Victorians cannot enter the state without serving a 14-day quarantine period and returning a negative COVID test – this is despite 14 straight days of zero community transmission in Victoria.
Residents from New South Wales and Queensland may only enter Western Australia with special exemption.
At the very least, this will likely see West Coast and Fremantle’s AFLW teams moved into a hub in Victoria as the league ponders changes to its fixture.
This will likely also affect the AAMI Community Series, scheduled to get underway on February 18th.
St Kilda is currently slated to travel to Perth to take on West Coast on February 19th.
Reports in the Herald Sun indicate the pre-season competition could be cut from two games per side to just one.