AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan has flagged the potential for a \u2018footy carnival\u2019 for all nine games in a round to be played in a single state as early as next year.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It would see the pre-season limited and clubs play an extra home and away game.<\/p>\n
Speaking on SEN\u2019s Whateley<\/em>, McLachlan said multiple states are interested.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it came as an idea, we work with the clubs about how they want the season set up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis 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\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cSo we had the presidents and CEOs on the back of that just before the opening week and I said, ‘if you\u2019re going to do it like that, why don\u2019t you play it as a home and away game? And we\u2019ll just have a very limited pre-season’.<\/p>\n \u201cThe team have gone off and explored all of that and now we\u2019ve got multiple states interested in doing that, it\u2019s got to the point where three states say, \u2018yeah, we\u2019ll do it, we\u2019d love to have all nine games in this market\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe members in each state still get their 11 home games and it\u2019s an additional one, and we can come together as an industry\u2026 yesterday we got a tick to go and say, \u2018yeah, we can start drilling, we brief the clubs where we are at, a marketing sense, financial sense, a logistical sense, and now we\u2019re working through that with the clubs,\u201d McLachlan said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll probably do that over the next two or three weeks, it\u2019d be a big thing.<\/p>\n \u201cI think, what they\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n In regards to whether it was possible next year, McLachlan said, \u201cthat\u2019s what we\u2019re looking at, a lot of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n McLachlan will cap off his eight-year tenure later this year after flagging his resignation earlier this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n