Regional venues booted as AFL revises pre-season fixture
The AFL has released an updated pre-season fixture, with less games and all but two matches to be played at traditional AFL stadiums.
The changes have been made to the fixture to reduce travel for clubs and avoid potential border issues. In addition to the one official pre-season game, each club will also play one informal scratch match.
Games initially scheduled for regional areas including Morwell, Whyalla, Albury, Coffs Harbour and Mandurah have all been cut from the fixture, while suburban grounds including Ikon Park, Moorabbin, Whitten Oval, North Hobart Oval, Casey Fields and Noarlunga Oval have also been dropped.
Now known as the AAMI Community Series, replacing Marsh as the naming-rights sponsor of the pre-season competition, the series has been halved from 18 games to nine, across five days.
SEE THE UPDATED AFL PRE-SEASON FIXTURE
Commencing on Thursday March 4, there will now be three games played at Marvel Stadium. Games will also be played at UTAS Stadium, GMHBA Stadium, Giants Stadium, Manuka Oval, Fremantle Oval and Leederville Oval.
The AFL's fixturing boss, Travis Auld, said the updated schedule aimed to protect the health and safety of the competition and community by reducing travel ahead of the premiership season which is scheduled to begin on March 18 (see the 2021 AFL Fixture).
Auld thanked the regional communities that were originally scheduled to host matches and thanked them for their understanding.
“It is communities like these that are the heartbeat of Australian Football and we hope to be able to return to each of those areas and play games there in the future.”
The Lavington Sports Ground, which recently completed its $19 million dollar redevelopment, is one of the grounds which will no longer host a game, but is hopeful of being back on the calendar next year.
It’s a similar story for the other football codes, with NRL and Super Rugby teams to also play just the one official trial game before the season-proper, however they will play games in regional areas.
There will also be four NRL Trials played earlier involving players with 12 or less games during the 2020 season. Official trials begin on February 27, with four matches at non-traditional/regular NRL venues – Casey Fields, Oakes Oval, Glen Willow Stadium and Dolphin Stadium. NRL Trials schedule >
Townsville’s Queensland Country Bank Stadium will host the NRL All Stars Game for the first time on February 20.
Two Super Rugby trial matches have been confirmed at this stage, with the Waratahs taking on the Reds at Narrabri on February 5, and Brumbies taking on the Force at Viking Park the following day. Melbourne Rebel’s pre-season hit-out is yet to be announced. The 2021 Super Rugby AU season commences on February 19 in Perth – see the fixture.
