Prior to the resumption, the league renegotiated its $417m/yr broadcast deals with Among the other direct impacts of the pandemic were: The pre-season series of games returned as the 2020 Marsh Community Series, with teams playing two games each. As the coronavirus situation developed, only the first round was played as originally drawn. On 15 May, as most states began easing restrictions, the league's plan to resume the season was announced: clubs began non-contact training from 18 May, and full contact training from 25 May, ahead of resuming competitive matches from 11 June,The first major fixturing challenge occurred in the aftermath of Round 4, when a spike in Victorian COVID-19 cases prompted other states to either impose tighter quarantine restrictions on Victorians, or defer the relaxation of restrictions already in place. During the peak of the hiatus, players were allowed to train only within the strict limits of the government restrictions on public gatherings; at the height of the pandemic in April and May, when gatherings larger than two were restricted, this means players could train only in pairs. On 22 March 2020, the season was suspended at the conclusion of round 1 due to the Prior to the commencement of the season, anticipating that the season would be forced to cease at the peak of the virus, the AFL announced the fixture would be shortened from 22 matches per team to 17, with each team playing each other once.The season was suspended for more than two months. The rest of the fixture was redrawn into a new seventeen-round season in which each team plays each other once.Updated to match(es) played on 13 July 2020. Although this forced two planned Round 5 matches (As of Round 4, the only other fixture which has not gone ahead as scheduled was:
Source: When the season resumed, the South Australian and Western Australian governments still had in place strict 14-day quarantine periods for interstate travellers which were not waived for football clubs; and, by Round 5, a 14-day quarantine was imposed for travel from Victoria in all states except New South Wales.To overcome this, the fixture featured several quarantine hubs, in which clubs travelled to a restricted state for an extended three- or four-week trip, quarantined there and played several games against other teams in the hub.
Each team played two games, many at suburban or regional venues, while all games were televised on Fox Footy. When games were postponed or rescheduled, other games within the same round were often also rescheduled to ensure the primetime television slots were filled. Sixteen When the league returned to training and playing, it was done with strict, enforceable protocols and monitoring in place to ensure that the clubs would not suffer a virus outbreak, and that any virus cases could be contained with minimal impact to the wider competition.Throughout the season, AFL-listed players were not permitted to participate in the state league competitions (the VFL, SANFL, WAFL or NEAFL) due to the greater risk of external threats in the semi-professional state league environment; this meant there was no formal competitive Prior to Round 5, ten Melbourne suburbs were placed back into stage three lockdown, and the New South Wales government closed its border to people from those suburbs.