AFL Canberra announced sweeping changes to its finals series format in a meeting with clubs on Thursday night. The league reconfirmed its commitment to seeing the season come to its rightful conclusion.
A return for finals can come as late as October 2 for the Semi-Finals and October 9 for the Grand Final. AFL Canberra also declared they would not restart the season without the NSW teams, taking a “one in, all-in” approach.
Suppose football returns for the Roos this season. They’ll lose the double chance they earned for finishing in the top two and head straight into a 2nd vs 3rd do-or-die final against the ADFA Rams. The latter gave the Roos only their second loss of 2021 in their last fixture. Should they win that game, the Roos will take on the winner of the ANU Griffins vs Southern Cats for the premiership.
Roos Coach and Club President, Jarrad Forlonge, suggested the Roos were eager to return to football as soon as possible.
“From a club perspective we are happy for the season to complete. Understandably there are many things that are more important than football right now but we see the impact that football clubs can have on individuals and communities in times like these. If the government and the league are happy for sport to continue then as a club we’d love to get back out there,” he said.
As for what the messaging has been internally in the Roos camp, Forlonge said they’ve been staying in contact, with an elusive 2021 premiership still within reach.
“Next few weeks will just be to stay safe and try and stay as fit as possible. Hard with the restrictions on exercise but trying to stay as motivated as possible. We’re all staying in touch and looking out for each other, so hopefully we can all get together soon. We’ve had a successful year so far, so we’d like to get the chance to finish it off.”
There’s been limited training and only four games for the Roos in the last two months, originally due to ground closures for wet weather, as well as opposition, forfeits. Now with Covid-19 splitting their team in half courtesy of the NSW/ACT border, the Roos face an almighty challenge to win the premiership from here. That being said, it would make victory all the more sweeter if they could overcome the obstacles in their path and return a premiership to their Australian Hotel base for the first time since 2017.
Max O’Driscoll
