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The locations of two upcoming AFL games remain up in the air three days out from the start of Round 17 as the league manoeuvres through various travel restrictions and exemptions.
The AFL released the upcoming round’s fixture on Monday night – but without confirmed venues for Saturday night’s Brisbane-St Kilda match (originally scheduled for the Gabba) or Sunday’s early game between GWS and Gold Coast.
The AFL hoped to lock in the final two match venues on Tuesday.
“We are pleased to be able to confirm the locations for seven of the nine games for Round 17 with an aim to finalising arrangements for the two outstanding games as early as tomorrow,” fixtures boss Travis Auld said on Monday.
The Giants and Suns are expected to play in regional Victoria – likely at Ballarat’s Mars Stadium.
West Coast’s clash with North Melbourne will be played next Monday night at the 60,000-seat Optus Stadium to allow for a capacity crowd to attend.
The Eagles were forced to play in an empty stadium when they hosted the Western Bulldogs eight days ago following a COVID-19 scare in Perth.
The crowd capacity for any sporting fixtures or concerts this weekend in Perth will be capped at 50 per cent.
But if all goes to plan, Western Australia premier Mark McGowan will further ease restrictions from next Monday, meaning a full crowd will be able to attend the Eagles-Kangaroos clash.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
The Eagles will fly back to WA on Tuesday via a charter flight shared with Super Netball’s West Coast Fever.
The round will kick off with Thursday night’s top-four showdown between Port Adelaide and Melbourne at the Adelaide Oval.
Essendon and Adelaide have a Marvel Stadium encounter on Friday night, while the Western Bulldogs will host Sydney at the Docklands venue on Saturday night. Hawthorn will play Fremantle in Launceston on Saturday afternoon.
The Dockers were unable to secure a travel exemption from the Tasmanian government last week but have since spent a week in Melbourne and been given the green light to head south.
Fremantle will return to Western Australia after the match.
Geelong face Carlton at the MCG in the Saturday twilight game, with a Richmond-Collingwood showdown at the same ground on Sunday evening.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan understood the frustration short-notice fixture releases gave fans and asked for “understanding”.
“I hope you all understand we’re doing our best to give you as much certainty (as we can), but things change so fast,” McLachlan said.
“We believe it’s better to have a level of certainty when we go out (with the fixture), rather than going out and then changing it and having to redo everything.
“I went to a couple of games on the weekend, the footy was good… the capacity, hopefully it’s increased this week, we’ll know in the next day or so.”
© AAP
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