While not closing the door completely on the side being able to grace the UTAS Stadium turf at some point during the AFL's condensed season, Kennett, speaking on Fox Footy Live on Saturday, admitted Tasmania's strong border control measures would keep his side out at least at the start of the season.

It comes a week after he had said on radio the club was still keen to play its four contractually required matches in Launceston this season.

"I was very keen we'd play in Tasmania given the opportunities for the rest of this season, but as you know Tasmania has put the borders up around the island state, '' he said.

"So unless we were to go down there for 14 days or longer, we'd have to go into isolation first and then play, and that doesn't work out, so the Premier (Peter Gutwein) down there doesn't think there will be football played there in the foreseeable future.

"Whether they lift their borders in order for us to fly in and fly out, which would also include North Melbourne (which is contracted to play four games at Hobart's Bellerive Oval), at some stage in the second half of the season, I don't know.

"There's no brinkmanship, we just have to accept whatever the political leaders of every state have said and what they are doing in the same way that the AFL has had to adjust to what the premiers of South Australia and Western Australia are doing and saying."

Gutwein earlier this week remained firm that AFL matches in the state would be unlikely while the border controls were still in place to protect Tasmanians from the threat of COVID-19.

"Under our exemptions it would be very difficult for AFL teams to fly into Tasmania,'' he said on Wednesday.

A week earlier Gutwein said he wasn't "in a rush and tear to have AFL played here in Tasmania in front of empty stadiums", comments which Kennett said were "very short-sighted and very selfish".

North Melbourne has also been on the record as saying it wants to play its four matches in the state if possible.

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After announcing its return to train and return to play details on Friday, the AFL will announce the fixtures for the first 4-6 weeks of its 17-round season in the next nine days.

On Friday, the league said it hoped to "play games in most states and territories but will continue to maintain an agile and flexible fixture to take account of any changes to restrictions in each respective jurisdiction".

The league said that "all future decisions on location of matches will be made in consultation with federal, state and territory governments and their respective chief health officers".