"Ultimately that would mean the stand down of the club, and for the integrity of the competition that would be we would put a standstill to that round of football," McLachlan said about the prospect of a positive test. The AFL will commit to the first four rounds of the season remaining as fixtured - even if the timing of those games changes - but after that the balance of 13 rounds would be completely overhauled to allow for every team to play each other once. The AFL is confident that they will be able to complete 17 rounds in the remaining period of the year, with flexibility to play more games in shorter periods and push back the finals into October if required. Any plans to do so would be complicated, however, by the men's Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in October, which features games at the MCG, SCG, Gabba, Adelaide Oval and Perth Stadium. "If it's done by the end of September fabulous, but if we need more time we'll do that," McLachlan said.

"It's every intention that the MCG will host the grand final this year." Carlton CEO Cain Liddle said the Blues were open to hosting games at Princes Park if it would help the AFL with scheduling a redrawn fixture. "... If I took a call from the AFL asking, 'Would you be open to playing games at Ikon Park?' We absolutely would be ... [saying] it's an elite surface," Liddle said. "There'd be no reason from our end why the round two game versus [the] Bulldogs couldn't be played [at Ikon Park]."

Loading McLachlan said the competition would go on "because we know what football means to people" and the community at this very difficult time needed football to go on. "We have flexibility now in a 17-round season, it buys us more time," McLachlan said. The state league competitions and NAB League have been postponed and will not commence until the end of May. The AFL is planning to have a mini-draft for clubs to add state league players to a supplementary list, to cope with the likelihood of games being played in short turnaround. The details of this will be confirmed next week.

The AFL will suffer a major financial hit, with the league's broadcast rights based on 198 games - or a two-round season of nine games per round - plus finals. McLachlan said the league was having talks with its broadcasters about the financial implications of a shorter season but noted Seven and Fox were long-term partners of the game. Players were due to have a phone conference on Monday night. It is expected they will be asked to take a significant pay cut this year given not only the impact of fewer games but that those games that are played will be in empty stadiums. McLachlan said he was willing to take a pay cut, noting that the effect of coronavirus would "hit everywhere". McLachlan also said he had had a very productive discussion with AFLPA boss Paul Marsh about the impact of the cut to the fixture and there was recognition of the extraordinary situation the game faced. Coaches have been consulted about plans for shorter games in the event of cancellations or matches needing to be squeezed into a shorter time frame. The AFL has discussed 16 minutes plus time on for quarters. The preference is for teams to remain at 22 per game with four on the bench. The cap on rotations is being reassessed. Coaches favour bringing players in as needed rather than through a mini-draft as it will be more cost effective and easier to manage.