The AFL Players Association have ruled out another festival of footy, saying they will draw the line at five-day breaks for players.
The season has been thrown into turmoil, with Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory in lockdown as all 18 teams hub in Victoria.
However, AFLPA CEO Paul Marsh said they will stand against a compressed fixture given the league’s decision to slash interchange rotations and return to 20-minute quarters.
“I think the players and the AFLPA have been incredibly flexible and agile over the last 18 months,” Marsh told SEN's Dwayne's World.
“We’ve done so much that’s been asked of us, but the point around five-day breaks, we agreed with the AFL that teams could play off one five-day break and not beyond that.
“When the AFL put down the number of rotations last year and put the game-time back to 20-minute quarters, this was an issue we flagged in November of last year that we’re not prepared to put the players, and I think the fans would be on the same page, at risk from an injury perspective.
“The game is harder than it has ever been to play and we’ve been saying that all year, so to start throwing in additional five-day breaks would be putting the players at risk.
“It’s about looking after the players’ health and wellbeing, which from our perspective is the number one issue.
“While we’ll keep working with the game to get the season away … there comes a point where you can’t go any further and our line is on the five-day breaks.”
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