The coronavirus pandemic could see Tasmania miss out on AFL content for the first time in 20 years, says Premier Peter Gutwein.
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The state unveiled strict new border control measures on Thursday morning which require all non-essential travellers arriving in Tasmania to self-isolate for 14 days.
Coronavirus: All the latest updates on COVID-19 for Tasmania
Launceston's UTAS Stadium and Hobart's Bellerive Oval were both set to host the first of their four Hawthorn and North Melbourne fixtures of the season late next month, but could now be stripped of all eight matches.
Tasmania pays about $8 million annually for the Hawthorn and North Melbourne deals, which expire at the end of next season.
Gutwein said he was unsure what financial or logistical arrangements would be made surrounding this season's matches.
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"Obviously that's a day-by-day proposition and we're working with the AFL," Gutwein said on Thursday morning.
"I think these games would be unlikely to go ahead but we'll be working it through with the AFL.
"In terms of the self-quarantine, I'll need to speak with [AFL chief executive] Gil McLachlan about that.
"I don't know whether or not the AFL can put in special arrangements in terms of how they would manage their flight into the state and to the ground and I think it would be very difficult for those games to go ahead.
"We will work with the teams themselves [about] whether or not there are ways we can reframe the contract, but at the end of the day this will be difficult.
"There will be costs associated with a range of measures and a range of impacts over time."
The AFL season will get under way on Thursday night with Carlton and Richmond doing battle behind closed doors at the MCG.
Just four weeks remain until North Melbourne are scheduled to meet Fremantle in Hobart, but Kangaroos coach Rhyce Shaw insisted his team hadn't been worrying about where, and under what circumstances, the game would be played.
"I think we travel to Brisbane next week and in round five we go to Tassie, but I think the AFL will work through that, we can't worry too much about that," Shaw told reporters in Melbourne.
"As Gil and Hock [AFL football operations manager Steve Hocking] have been saying, you just have to play it as you see it, play every ball on its merits.
"We'll adapt, we've been really good in that regard I think."
2020 TASMANIAN FIXTURES
- Round 5: Sunday April 19, 1.10pm: North Melbourne v Fremantle at Bellerive Oval
- Round 6: Saturday, April 25, 1.10pm: Hawthorn v West Coast Eagles at UTAS Stadium
- Round 10: Saturday, May 23, 1.45pm: Hawthorn v Port Adelaide at UTAS Stadium
- Round 13: Saturday, June 13, 1.45pm: North Melbourne v Brisbane at Bellerive Oval
- Round 17: Saturday, July 11, 2.10pm: Hawthorn v North Melbourne at UTAS Stadium
- Round 19: Saturday, July 25, 2.10pm: North Melbourne v Gold Coast at Bellerive Oval
- Round 21: Saturday, August 8, 4.35pm: Hawthorn v Adelaide at UTAS Stadium
- Round 23: date TBC North Melbourne v Melbourne at Bellerive Oval
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