‘Footy carnival’ and extended season on the agenda

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan has flagged the potential for a ‘footy carnival’ for all nine games in a round to be played in a single state as early as next year.

The idea would see one state host all 18 teams and nine games in a single round of AFL footy, and McLachlan confirmed he floated the idea to club CEOs and presidents in a meeting on Monday.

It would see the pre-season limited and clubs play an extra home and away game.

Speaking on SEN’s Whateley, McLachlan said multiple states are interested.

“So, it came as an idea, we work with the clubs about how they want the season set up,” he said.

“This year, if you recall, we played some internal practice matches, low key stuff, and then one proper hit out in venues with all the systems going and they [clubs] just played it like a home and away game, they just belted into each other…

“So we had the presidents and CEOs on the back of that just before the opening week and I said, ‘if you’re going to do it like that, why don’t you play it as a home and away game? And we’ll just have a very limited pre-season’.

“The team have gone off and explored all of that and now we’ve got multiple states interested in doing that, it’s got to the point where three states say, ‘yeah, we’ll do it, we’d love to have all nine games in this market’.”

The idea could see double and triple-headers played at the same venue, and while McLachlan said the concept still has some way to go, the league will begin to talk to clubs about the feasibility.

“The members in each state still get their 11 home games and it’s an additional one, and we can come together as an industry… yesterday we got a tick to go and say, ‘yeah, we can start drilling, we brief the clubs where we are at, a marketing sense, financial sense, a logistical sense, and now we’re working through that with the clubs,” McLachlan said.

“We’ll probably do that over the next two or three weeks, it’d be a big thing.

“I think, what they’ve been notionally talking about is somewhere around, we get the season out of the blocks well and strong, then maybe around round five-ish, somewhere in the back half of April, school holidays nationally, people could set it up, go away with their families and work around that sort of weekend if that was their inclination.

In regards to whether it was possible next year, McLachlan said, “that’s what we’re looking at, a lot of work to do.”

McLachlan will cap off his eight-year tenure later this year after flagging his resignation earlier this year.

– BY SEB MOTTRAM/ SEN