Gold Coast SUNS CEO Mark Evans has endorsed the AFL’s decision to reduce the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season to just 17 home and away matches.
Speaking on SEN on Tuesday morning, Evans said while the immediate future remained uncertain, the restructured season would allow the league to be more adaptable to changes as they arise.
“I think we’re going to need the flexibility,” Evans said.
“At least we can come out and start planning all of those things.
“The logistics of it are still up in the air and that could change from week-to-week or day-to-day.
“But pleasingly for the way that I’ve seen coaches, players and administrators react, they’re starting to talk about how we have to be adaptable and flexible and deal with each day as it comes.”
Evans said the AFL had been in communication with the 18 clubs around the re-fixturing of games this season.
“What we have said to the AFL is that we understand that these are unique times and we need to flex and adapt to that,” he said.
“We’ve been trying to tell our people for a while that the motto at the Gold Coast SUNS is to accept the challenge and get on it with it.
“To give us some certainty, the AFL has said that the fixture in terms of who plays who and when in what order, will continue in the first four rounds.
“But they then have to recalibrate the fixture to try to get rounds where 18 teams each play each other across the seventeen rounds.
“So I would expect in some of those circumstances they might find efficiencies and protective measures to try to get the season away.”
As the dynamic situation continues to evolve, Evans said one thing at the club has remained a constant; the players’ positive attitude.
“Footy clubs are amazingly resilient,” Evans said.
“We’ve got kids that have come in and trained for their first summer waiting to see what happens with selection.
“We’ve got players who have really stepped up their program across summer who just can’t wait to play.
“Our job is to educate them and prepare them to just be adaptable and flexible but also to get them to understand what’s happening in the community and what their role is in that.”
