AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan has confirmed the 2020 season will be reduced to 17 games due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The opening four rounds will run as scheduled before the remaining fixtures are released. It means every team will play each other once during the home and away season.
A final decision on whether Round 1 begins on Thursday night will be made tomorrow.
“We are committed to doing that (17 rounds),” McLachlan told reporters
“We’ve got 40 weeks to get a 17-week season away until the end of 2020 … and we’ll use every one of those weekends, days … we’ll do whatever we need to do.
“We have flexibility now with a 17-round season that buys us more time. If it’s done by the end of September, fabulous, but if we need more time, we’ll do that.
“The first four rounds will be as scheduled this year and then that will give the team a month to recalibrate the balance of the fixture.”
McLachlan also revealed it would "down tools" for the round if a player contracted COVID-19.
