AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan confirmed on Wednesday that this year’s Grand Final will be played in Perth if it cannot be staged at the MCG due to ongoing COVID situation in Melbourne.
McLachlan told reporters that Optus Stadium’s ability to host a capacity crowd of 60,0000 saw Western Australia get the nod over South Australia and Queensland to possibly host the premiership decider.
The South Australian government reportedly proposed a maximum crowd of 30,000 at Adelaide Oval as part of their unsuccessful pitch to host the 2021 Grand Final.
Port Adelaide champion Kane Cornes says it’s another “massive own goal” by SA government to miss out on hosting the Grand Final for a second straight year.
“The thing that I don’t get is this is a once in a lifetime event,” Cornes told SEN SA Breakfast.
“I was there in Brisbane last year at the Gabba – it was amazing and to think of the event that Adelaide could have put on, on the back of losing the Clipsal (500) and everything else that has been lost to COVID, you get one opportunity to have a crack at it and they didn’t take it seriously.
“Steven Marshall (SA premier) told us that he did, and they put a bid in and that they were going to have a crack – well you didn’t really have a crack, did you?
“Come up with a safe environment to hold 53,000 at Adelaide Oval, like Western Australia have been able to do.
“The thing that I don’t understand is you can have 70 per cent capacity indoors at a pub, but you can’t have a similar capacity at an outdoor stadium at Adelaide Oval.
“So why can you have 70 per cent of the pub indoors, but you can’t have 50 per cent or 75 per cent outdoors at the Adelaide Oval safely? You’ve got four weeks to plan for it.
“It’s really disappointing that they couldn’t at least increase it to 40,000 and hold what would be such a great opportunity for our state.
“I know things can change, a case could happen today and everything will be shut down, I get and understand that, but the same could happen in Perth or Queensland where their capacity has increased.
“It’s just a massive own goal again on the back of last year and not fully having a crack at it last year.”
A maximum crowd of 20,000 can attend this weekend's finals at Adelaide Oval.
The 2021 AFL Grand Final is slated for Saturday, September 25.