Victoria loosens restrictions, but clubs wait for AFL green light on training
AFL clubs will have to wait for the league to give the green light for them to resume training, despite the Andrews government lifting some restrictions on sport and opening the way for a return in Victoria.
AFL sources said the players would still be permitted to train in groups of two only – the current league rules – until the AFL said otherwise. Players and clubs would still have to follow AFL protocols until there was a change.
Daniel Andrews said eased restrictions in Victoria paved the way for football's return, but the AFL has not yet lifted training restrictions for clubs.Credit:AAP
A ban on contact at training also remained for the clubs. The AFL, thus, has not yet allowed clubs and players to move to the government's "level B" for sport, in which people can train in groups of 10, while maintaining some social distancing. Level C allows full contact and is the last step before the games return.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Monday that people can practise sport in groups of up to 10 and that the AFL and NRL could train, without outlining specifics on what that entailed for those competitions.
Andrews said the government had "agreed to a set of arrangements to allow training for AFL, for rugby league, other professional sports, to resume from just before midnight tomorrow night [Tuesday]".
But the AFL has to take into account all of the states in which clubs play and train, and has uniform rules for the clubs. It has not allowed West Coast and Fremantle, nor Adelaide and Port Adelaide, to train in groups of 10, even though that is permitted under the rules of those clubs' states.
The AFL commission was meeting on Monday to grapple with a range of issues, including the return to play, which is the AFL's priority, ahead of plans for the competition later this year and next year.
Andrews said each sport must put in place its own plans and must be self-contained. He said use of an indoor gym space must be exclusively for professional sport and controlled by the team using it, which would enable stronger contact tracing in the event of a positive test.
"So training resuming paves the way for footy to be back and I think we all want that provided it is safe, appropriate and can be done in a cautious way," Andrews said.
"I'm confident it can be ... these are small steps, significant steps, though."