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New protocols for the looming AFLW season stipulate games will go ahead even if almost half a club's players are unavailable because of COVID-19.
AFLW games will go ahead even if almost half a club's squad are ruled out of playing because of COVID-19.
Bracing for further coronavirus cases, AFL hierarchy have released fresh guidelines for the women's season starting on January 7.
Games will continue to be played if 16 of each club's 30 primary-listed players are available for selection plus five train-on players.
If the minimum 21 players aren't available, AFLW officials will seek to reschedule the game for another time in that round or later in the season.
In a worst-case scenario of a game unable to be rescheduled, the match would be cancelled.
The AFL's general manager of competition management Laura Kane says the the protocols have been introduced to mitigate risk.
"In a national sport played across many states and territories, we need to be able to adapt, and adapt quickly, to the COVID conditions," Kane said in a statement on Wednesday,
"These guidelines help us achieve this.
"Over the last two seasons the AFL ... have planned for every possible contingency and circumstance.
"It is an approach that has successfully helped us navigate both our competitions through a really uncertain time."
All AFLW players and staffers must be vaccinated while at least three AFLW clubs - GWS, Western Bulldogs and Richmond - have already had pre-season training interrupted after positive COVID-19 tests among their respective groups.
The AFL announced on Wednesday that Fremantle's round two match against GWS - originally scheduled to take place at Fremantle Oval on January 16 - will now be played at Whitten Oval in Melbourne.
Western Australia's border won't open until February 5, placing a host of other Fremantle and West Coast home games in jeopardy.
The Dockers are due to open their season at home to Adelaide on January 8.
West Coast are due to host Brisbane, Gold Coast, and Adelaide over the first three rounds in January.
Whether those games can go ahead in WA remains to be seen.
