The AFL is planning to only make a decision on whether to postpone Thursday night’s season opener between Brisbane and Geelong on the morning of the match, despite the Lions urging the AFL to make an early call as Queensland prepares for Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Concerning reports from the Bureau of Meteorology suggest the tropical cyclone, which is predicted to make landfall in Brisbane on Thursday night or Friday morning, could bring up to 600mm of rain and winds of 130km/h.
Calls to postpone the match not only are growing from teams and members of the public, but opposition coaches, with Geelong’s Chris Scott echoing comments from the Lions’ Chris Fagan that playing in such conditions would be a terrible decision.
“It’s not a tropical thunderstorm, it’s a cyclone,” said Fagan this morning.
“I’ve seen the carnage they’ve caused at different periods in Australian history. The sooner the decision’s made the better.”
“Even in principle, the idea of getting on a plane and flying into the eye of a cyclone doesn’t sound like a great idea,” echoed his Geelong counterpart.
“Every game we have contingencies and we have options, but at the moment the game is scheduled for Thursday night,” AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said on Monday.
“The Lions are working towards that, as are Geelong and as are the AFL and Channel Seven.
“At the moment, there are forecasts and those forecasts have changed. When we’re absolutely 100 per cent confident about what’s going to happen, we’ll make a call then.
“Weather patterns are unpredictable. The health and safety of our players and fans will be the number one priority in every decision we make.
“Our opening game is a big game, but it’s not the main game… the main game is actually that the people of south-east Queensland and northern NSW are safe and that’s the focus now.”
According to the Herald Sun, the Lions, as well as Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, believe the match should be postponed to Round 3, when both clubs have a scheduled bye, in order to allow Queenslanders including Lions players to prepare for the cyclone’s landfall.
They also want the league to make an early call in the best interests of the public, to also prevent interstate fans flying into a potentially dangerous situation in Brisbane.
According to reporter Jon Ralph, Lions players and staff have been busy ‘sandbagging their houses’ in preparation for the cyclone, and are in ‘no place mentally’ to play.
Complicating matters is that a move to a Saturday game in Round 3 would deny Channel Seven the opportunity to broadcast the game, with Fox Footy holding exclusive rights to all Saturday matches in the early rounds.
The match could potentially be played on Sunday afternoon or even night, but that would leave the Cats with just a five-day break before their Round 4 clash with Melbourne.
The AFL is hopeful the forecast will improve, but even if the match goes ahead, the wild weather looks certain to keep thousands of fans away from the match.
Aside from the enforced scrapping of the 2020 fixture due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league have only once outright cancelled a game – Geelong’s clash with Adelaide in 2015, which was called off due to the death of Crows coach Phil Walsh.
The news was met with amusement from AFL fans, given the impact the cyclone is set to have on Opening Round – already a polarising topic among the public since its inception for the 2024 season.
“Even God thinks Round Zero is a shit idea,” one commenter wrote, while another said the NRL would be ‘laughing their nuts off’ at the development.
“Tropical Cyclone Alfred poised to wreak havoc on the opening night of the AFL season,” ABC commentator Quentin Hull wrote on X.
“Huge rain & gale-force winds are forcecast for Thursday when Brisbane and Geelong are set to open the season at The Gabba.”
The Lions have expressed their preference to play Geelong in Round 3, when both teams are set to have a bye, should the match need to be rescheduled.
