AFL chief Gillon McLachlan has announced he is confident the competition's return date will be revealed later this month.
The league was shutdown after Round 1 due to the coronavirus pandemic as the league negotiates a range of options of how and when it will restart.
Speaking in a Zoom press conference today, McLachlan was optimistic a call will be made on the season by April 27.
โI want to be clear that thereโs a lot of work being done to return to play,โ he said.
โHow the players can get back, broadcasting and fixturing โ there are a lot of ideas in play and thereโs no bad ideas.
โWe are making that our priority and we are our optimistic we will be finalising a plan forward by the end of April and announcing it at that time.
โWe are finalising our plans internally, we will then engage with key stakeholders and clearly we are doing that with the best medical and government advice we can.โ
The league boss said that when the time is right to resume the competition, there will be no intention of stopping again.
โThe decision we make will have the support of the relevant government authorities and their medical officers,โ McLachlan said.
โWeโre also very keen that when we start we donโt stop.โ
He added that the automatic 30-day shutdown of the league if a player contract the virus would be reevaluated.
โThe 30 days applied when we didnโt have the protocols and the resilience measures that we have now and will certainly have in place with our players.
โIโm optimistic itโll be shorter than that going forward.โ
