AFL players will accept compressed fixture if contract freeze is lifted, AFLPA boss Paul Marsh saysPaul Marsh says Victorian AFL teams relocation is necessary to continue the season
Players from the AFL's 10 Victorian clubs feel a "responsibility" to do whatever it takes to complete the 2020 season, AFLPA boss Paul Marsh says, but they want the freeze on contract discussions lifted.
Key points:The AFL is planning to cram as many games as possible in during the next few weeksAFLPA boss Paul Marsh says the increased risk of injury means players need to be able to secure their futuresMarsh also says most players are accepting of a lengthy stay in a Queensland hub in order to get the season completed
The league is preparing to set up camp in Queensland for the remainder of the home-and-away season after a serious coronavirus outbreak in Victoria forced it into action.
It is also planning to heavily compress the latter round of the season, cramming as many as 33 games into less than three weeks, with the possibility of playing games every day.
While this plan was yet to be confirmed, Marsh said the players would likely only sign off on the idea if the league-wide and AFL-mandated contract freeze was lifted.
"The AFL would like to play the last 11 home-and-away games in a period of eight weeks, and we are certainly open to that," he said.
"But at the moment, one of our concerns is the AFL has put a freeze on players contracting into next year and beyond. We need that to be removed.
"We will see a greater risk of injury if players are compressing over the next few weeks, and we don't want to put the players in a situation where this impacts their futures going forward."
AFL fixtures boss Travis Auld said the idea was to move to the altered schedule over the next few weeks before reverting to a more traditional format before finals.
"What we've talked a lot about is needing to get some weeks back in this next block, and then trying to clean up the back end of the season so everyone is well prepared for what is hopefully a normalised finals series," Auld said.
"Now, how that works and how that exactly plays out, I'm not sure, but that certainly has been the preference of everyone."
Marsh said a majority of players were prepared to make the move to Queensland, but expected some would opt against a hub stay.
"We are working through it with the players, and they will embrace it," Marsh said.
"It doesn't mean every single player is going to be able to work through these issues this year, and that is ahead of us, but the players as a group feel a deep sense of responsibility to get this season finished, and we will continue to push forward.
"There are still some details we are working with with the AFL at the moment, but clearly at the moment, Victoria is not a feasible destination.
"So if we want to continue the season, we need to be out of Victoria."
Players' families would likely have the option to move into their own Queensland hub, but Marsh said the personal situations of some players could make the move untenable.
"There are different circumstances for different families," he said.
"Many of the players' families work, which makes it difficult for them to leave Melbourne or Sydney or wherever it might be," he said.
"But a lot of families will go up, no doubt, and that's been an important part of this. There are individual circumstances that are more difficult than others.
"There are players whose partners are expecting children in coming weeks. They will clearly need to get out of Queensland or wherever they might be, and prioritise their families."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-16/afl-players-compressed-fixture-contract-freeze-removed/12460710?section=sport
