COVID & AFL 2021

[Demonland 72,230]

 

[Demonland 72,230]

 

[Demonland 72,230]

Get the teams into a hub now.

[Demonland 72,230]

 

[Lucifers Hero 39,941]

2 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

If nothing else good comes out of 2 years of Covid-affected football scheduling, perhaps the AFL will find a way from 2022 onwards to ensure all teams play each other in the first 17 rounds and leave the double-ups to be played in the last 5 rounds. 

One would hope so.

One would think they would play as many of the first time games as soon as possible in 2021.  Instead they are about to push out two games where clubs have not played each other (Dees vs GCS and WBD vs Crows) for double ups this weekend.   

So, I don't hold out much hope of them doing what is sensible next year.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Lucifer's Hero

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

Classic Melbourne.

Get through most of season on top of ladder and then season gets derailed.

[Jaded No More 68,965]

Our lockdown won’t end tomorrow which is no surprise. Good luck getting to the G before September. 

[Superunknown 4,217]

Might see another GF at Gabba, G or AO.

If I was the AFL, I'd be asking players to think carefully about large public gatherings, like the rugby.

Moot point with lockdown in Vic now, but some are in QLD.

 

[Demonland 72,230]

 

[Demonland 72,230]

4 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Our lockdown won’t end tomorrow which is no surprise. Good luck getting to the G before September. 

No chance Finals or Grand Final will be at the G.

[Jaded No More 68,965]

16 minutes ago, Demonland said:

No chance Finals or Grand Final will be at the G.

It does seem unlikely. However a week is a long long time in this pandemic. 

[Jaded No More 68,965]

I really hope that our players are being told to limit their movements. Even once lockdown is lifted, and I know it’s hard because they deserve a life, but finals are so close. That sacrifice could make a massive difference. 
If we lose players to isolation or Covid it could cost us a flag. 

[Gawndy the Great 9,011]

Our case numbers have peaked (i think). What we are seeing is the variation in the incubation times of those infected in the original cluster. I think we will start to see a fall in the next few days with < 5 new cases per day by next week - if not zero. I would expect no crowds in VIC for the next 2-3 rounds as we get some control back and consecutive donut days. I would then expect an increase of crowds to about 50% by finals time. That is probably the best we can hope for. Obviously we could push for higher attendance but 50K at the G is still a decent size crowd and will be similar if not better atmosphere than what OO, AO or GABBA.

I still think that all other teams outside of SA and WA should hub in the southern states. 

[titan_uranus 25,020]

2 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

If nothing else good comes out of 2 years of Covid-affected football scheduling, perhaps the AFL will find a way from 2022 onwards to ensure all teams play each other in the first 17 rounds and leave the double-ups to be played in the last 5 rounds. 

The AFL loves the flexibility associated with moving the repeat games around, so I'm not sure they'll immediately go for the first 17 games being 17 opponents.

1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

With our possible Darwin game in 12 or so days, why would the NT let us in this time when they didn't let us in during early June when we had lockdown v4 ?

It surely won't happen. We'll likely be in lockdown until the end of this week at the earliest, and I can't see the NT allowing anyone who has been in Victoria this weekend (which we will be, when we play the Dogs) to enter the NT next week.

Surely the game has to be moved to Queensland.

44 minutes ago, Demonland said:

No chance Finals or Grand Final will be at the G.

Why? Finals are still just under two months away.

Last time things got dire in Victoria was a similar time period ago, and we'd recovered to the point of having decent-ish crowds back by last week.

[Diamond_Jim 12,594]

As our old friend Gomer Pyle would say.... "Surprise, Surprise"

They now think the recent stadium transmissions might have occurred in the queues trying to get into the stadiums.

[At AAMI Park] if we’ve got individuals who were not seated together and there’s no evidence that they’ve attended a food venue together either ... We think it’s a pinch point going into the stadium outdoors.

“Outdoor transmission, it’s a much, much lower risk, but it happens and we have to really look at the public events framework and how we help manage that as we kick off public events down the track.

The Guardian

[Superunknown 4,217]

40 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

As our old friend Gomer Pyle would say.... "Surprise, Surprise"

They now think the recent stadium transmissions might have occurred in the queues trying to get into the stadiums.

[At AAMI Park] if we’ve got individuals who were not seated together and there’s no evidence that they’ve attended a food venue together either ... We think it’s a pinch point going into the stadium outdoors.

“Outdoor transmission, it’s a much, much lower risk, but it happens and we have to really look at the public events framework and how we help manage that as we kick off public events down the track.

The Guardian

What were the mask settings? If a game ends up at Metricon, I'll be in a P2 going in and whilst in situ I think..

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,851]

2 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

Why? Finals are still just under two months away.

Last time things got dire in Victoria was a similar time period ago, and we'd recovered to the point of having decent-ish crowds back by last week.

Was thinking the same thing.

Assuming we have no further outbreaks until October (which is a big IF) one could argue that it's perfect timing to have an outbreak 6 weeks before finals. Allows plenty of time to bring the thing to ground in VIC and we'll presumably be out of lockdown for the entirety of August, touch wood. 

[Jaded No More 68,965]

1 hour ago, Diamond_Jim said:

As our old friend Gomer Pyle would say.... "Surprise, Surprise"

They now think the recent stadium transmissions might have occurred in the queues trying to get into the stadiums.

[At AAMI Park] if we’ve got individuals who were not seated together and there’s no evidence that they’ve attended a food venue together either ... We think it’s a pinch point going into the stadium outdoors.

“Outdoor transmission, it’s a much, much lower risk, but it happens and we have to really look at the public events framework and how we help manage that as we kick off public events down the track.

The Guardian

Why don’t they have timed tickets for entry? You buy your ticket and you have a 10-15 min window given to you to enter the ground. If you miss that time slot you need to wait until everyone else has been let in. It’s also a lot safer from a security point of view.  Lots of big events overseas do it for safety measures. 

Not to mention they must enforce mask wearing at all times unless seated. Most people don’t bother with masks outside of the ground when in fact it’s the most crowded. And FFS open up the entire ground. Then you can skip every second bay or every second row and reduce transmission. 

[Superunknown 4,217]

9 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Why don’t they have timed tickets for entry? You buy your ticket and you have a 10-15 min window given to you to enter the ground. If you miss that time slot you need to wait until everyone else has been let in. It’s also a lot safer from a security point of view.  Lots of big events overseas do it for safety measures. 

Not to mention they must enforce mask wearing at all times unless seated. Most people don’t bother with masks outside of the ground when in fact it’s the most crowded. And FFS open up the entire ground. Then you can skip every second bay or every second row and reduce transmission. 

Great idea.

Practically challenging. Think of everyone trying to board the plane earlier than the called rows...on steroid! It'll be like 9-11 x 100, Gary.

Ways to mitigate/control for it, but a really great idea.

You might see though big groups there early milling around waiting.

Perhaps really strictly enforced distancing - I am talking 3m - not 1m.

[Pennant St Dee 13,235]

5 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

If nothing else good comes out of 2 years of Covid-affected football scheduling, perhaps the AFL will find a way from 2022 onwards to ensure all teams play each other in the first 17 rounds and leave the double-ups to be played in the last 5 rounds. 

Yes would make sense along with equalising the draw, which they tried to do a few seasons ago but was compromised by blockbusters, derbies, showdowns etc

Rd 1 -17 Each team plays the other 17 sides once

Rd 18 -23 (5 games only taking the bye into consideration) goes as per below

Teams who finished 1st to 6th the previous season play each other a second time

Teams who finished 7th to 12th the previous season play each other a second time

Teams who finished 13th to 18th the previous season play each other a second time.

Its not rocket science and takes away teams having perceived easier draws because they have to play a side twice each season because they play in the same state or are traditional rivals. It’s not perfect but unless we play each other only once or twice it’s as fair as we can get.

IMO works better than other ideas of wild cards, teams playing for draft picks etc

[daisycutter 29,617]

14 minutes ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Yes would make sense along with equalising the draw, which they tried to do a few seasons ago but was compromised by blockbusters, derbies, showdowns etc

Rd 1 -17 Each team plays the other 17 sides once

Rd 18 -23 (5 games only taking the bye into consideration) goes as per below

Teams who finished 1st to 6th the previous season play each other a second time

Teams who finished 7th to 12th the previous season play each other a second time

Teams who finished 13th to 18th the previous season play each other a second time.

Its not rocket science and takes away teams having perceived easier draws because they have to play a side twice each season because they play in the same state or are traditional rivals. It’s not perfect but unless we play each other only once or twice it’s as fair as we can get.

IMO works better than other ideas of wild cards, teams playing for draft picks etc

an alternative approach:

3 conferences each of 6 sides

play each team in conference twice plus once against all other conference teams

i.e. (2 x 5) + (1 x12) = 22 games total

conferences initially decided by ranking all teams over say 20 years (or 10 or 25 or 30 or whatever). 

• conf1 - 1,4,7,10,13,16
• conf2 - 2,5,8,11,14.17
• conf3 - 3,6,9,12,15,18

Final 8 = top 2 from each conference plus next best performing 2 teams

[binman 43,105]

22 minutes ago, Superunknown said:

Great idea.

Practically challenging. Think of everyone trying to board the plane earlier than the called rows...on steroid! It'll be like 9-11 x 100, Gary.

Ways to mitigate/control for it, but a really great idea.

You might see though big groups there early milling around waiting.

Perhaps really strictly enforced distancing - I am talking 3m - not 1m.

One relatively easy option would be to have one stand for fully vaccinated people only.

Of course there are some technical issues (and maybe some ethical ones), but lets say at the G to get a ticket in the  Ponsford you have provide your vaccine digital certificate identifier.

You would still need to have all the systems in place (eg masks etc), but that group of people would be at very low risk of catching it or transmitting it to each other. Not no risk, but acceptably low. And if they did get it they are unlikely to get crook. 

Lets say there were 5, 000 people in the Posnford, all vaccinated. This is 5, 000 people less people crowding into other areas. And that group of people could relax in the knowledge that everyone around them is fully vaccinated. 

Id love the AFL to offer those tickets for free. Maybe in the finals. Create some incentives for people who are wavering about getting vaccinated.  

350, 000 people attended the three days of the British F1 just gone, including 140k cheek to jowl poms going crazy for Lewis Hamilton for the race itself. To purchase a ticket you needed to have been fully vaccinated (ie two shots) and pass a PCR in the days prior to the event (not sure how many days). This is the way:

 

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,814]

The problem with any plan to provide an advantage to those who are vaccinated is the unfairness to those ineligible as yet to be vaccinated. For example, those under 40 and not in a cohort of those otherwise allowed (eg, health care workers, etc).

[Jaded No More 68,965]

8 minutes ago, binman said:

One relatively easy option would be to have one stand for fully vaccinated people only.

Of course there are some technical issues (and maybe some ethical ones), but lets say at the G to get a ticket in the  Ponsford you have provide your vaccine digital certificate identifier.

You would still need to have all the systems in place (eg masks etc), but that group of people would be at very low risk of catching it or transmitting it to each other. Not no risk, but acceptably low. And if they did get it they are unlikely to get crook. 

Lets say there were 5, 000 people in the Posnford, all vaccinated. This is 5, 000 people less people crowding into other areas. And that group of people could relax in the knowledge that everyone around them is fully vaccinated. 

Id love the AFL to offer those tickets for free. Maybe in the finals. Create some incentives for people who are wavering about getting vaccinated.  

350, 000 people attended the three days of the British F1 just gone, including 140k cheek to jowl poms going crazy for Lewis Hamilton for the race itself. To purchase a ticket you needed to have been fully vaccinated (ie two shots) and pass a PCR in the days prior to the event (not sure how many days). This is the way:

 

I am all for incentivising people to get vaccinated, but while our supply is so critically low, you simply can't punish people for the mistakes of the federal government.

I am under 40. I don't think I should be punished because it is very hard for me to get access to any vaccine, even AZ, and I also shouldn't be punished for following the overwhelming health advice re: age, and I also shouldn't be punished for wanting to leave the AZ stocks we do have to people who are at higher risk than I am who are currently eligible for it and should rightly get it before I do. 

[binman 43,105]

3 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

The problem with any plan to provide an advantage to those who are vaccinated is the unfairness to those ineligible as yet to be vaccinated. For example, those under 40 and not in a cohort of those otherwise allowed (eg, health care workers, etc).

Sure. 

But i'm not proposing that ONLY people who are fully vaccinated can get a ticket. Just that they (we) can sit in their own stand, should they want to. As i would if the option was available. 

That said anyone over 18 get an AZ shot if they want to.