{"id":116998,"date":"2021-08-20T01:44:59","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T01:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=116998"},"modified":"2021-08-20T02:58:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T02:58:14","slug":"afl-boss-unapologetic-in-grand-final-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=116998","title":{"rendered":"AFL boss 'unapologetic' in grand final stance"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL<\/a> chief executive Gillon McLachlan<\/a> says he's "unapologetic" in his stance that the grand final will only play out in front of a crowd.<\/p>\n

McLachlan's comment is a striking indication that the game's showpiece event is highly unlikely to be held at the MCG, given Melbourne's escalating COVID-19 numbers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"The grand final will only go ahead with a crowd, correct?" said 3AW's Neil Mitchell.<\/p>\n

"Correct," McLachlan said.<\/p>\n

Mitchell: "So that means we've got to go interstate."<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

McLachlan then drilled home the importance of playing the grand final in front of a crowd.<\/p>\n

"I'm … unapologetic about that," McLachlan said.<\/p>\n

"This is the pinnacle. There are 800 players and staff and 15 million supporters (who) have been leaning in all year \u2013 and it needs to come to a head and give it justice to the biggest sporting event in the country. That needs to be with supporters because they make the game."<\/p>\n

\"AFL<\/p>\n

In what would be crushing for the soul of the game, there is a great possibility that not a single finals match will be played in Victoria.<\/p>\n

"It would be a very sad set-up \u2013 there is no doubt about that," McLachlan said.<\/p>\n

"But we are faced with the circumstances and the cards we've got. And the priority is the health and wellbeing of our community. Our game can't come ahead of that.<\/p>\n

"The health (department) and the state government need to make the decisions they need to make and … we'll work around that as we have for 18 months."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan says he's "unapologetic" in his stance that the grand final will only play out in front of a crowd. McLachlan's […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116998"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117000,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116998\/revisions\/117000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}