If any sport is bound in tradition, Australian Rules Football is one of them. Throughout each season many traditions are followed by the AFL, many dating back to the founding of the sport. The 2020 season will start on Thursday night with the annual Richmond-Carlton clash at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, because it usually does. Coronavirus be damned. If any 19s come up during the night, they will reflect the score, were that even possible, not the COVID... No one knows how many matches will be played, AFL is, after all a Winter Sport, and Australia approaches its Winter cold and flu, and Coronavirus season apparently. With a few hundred cases, the commissioners were unsure what the spread would be, but after following advice from the health ministry, and civic officials, it was decided the traditional Richmond-Carlton AFL season opener on Thursday night at the MCG could proceed. The entire season has been shortened to 17 games, to give greater flexibility in cancelling some weekends without affecting the season, and the option was given to progress directly to the finals series and forgo the final two rounds of the regular season. The AFL Chief Executive stated "We don’t know how many games we will get into this 153-game journey before we have to pause," he said, "But what I do know today is I feel comfortable with the government and medical advice, and the support of our presidents, CEOs, players and coaches." The decision came two days after the AFL commission had reduced the 2020 season from 22 matches per club to 17 in a bid to provide flexibility on scheduling in a season which is guaranteed to be severely interrupted. The Commissioners had hoped for some guidance from the national government, which has recently banned gatherings of over 100 people, but the government made it clear that this decision was in the hands of the AFL. The AFL has bucked the trend of sports internationally, with the large majority of leading competitions, including the English Premier League, NBA, Major League Baseball and tennis tournaments, putting things on hold. Last week the Melbourne Formula One event was cancelled. Thursday's match starts off a weekend of AFL action, with two matches on Friday, and several more on Saturday and Sunday. Carlton has not won the opening clash for several years, since 2012, and is hungry for a win. The Richmond Tigers are one of the strongest teams in the league. Action involving Trent Cotchin and Patrick Cripps will certainly heat up the evening. Is this a wise decision by Aussie Rules Football? That really is beyond the scope of this blog. It is good to see some return to normalcy with a return of the AFL season. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/omnisport/627676578.370807.1584575690532%40mail.yahoo.com.
