WITH COVID-19 resurfacing in Victoria this week, fresh challenges are set to hit the AFL in the lead up to Round 11.

Ticket sales are currently on-hold for Melbourne’s top of the table clash with the Western Bulldogs, but more information will undoubtedly be released in the coming days.

“I’m hoping the impact will be minimal … but it literally becomes an hour-by-hour announcement at this stage, and we’ll deal with it as it rolls out,” Demons’ CEO Gary Pert said on 1116 SEN on Wednesday morning.

“Every team’s different, so we need to be thinking about, in the same way we’re planning for all the different possibilities for Friday night, we also play in Alice Springs next week.

“So that has a lot of organisation.”

The 2021 season has been relatively smooth sailing to date, considering the circumstances, but Pert was under no illusions that challenges would come eventually.

“We’re thinking about the impact of this and … we’re hoping for best case, but we’re also preparing for worst case scenarios as well,” he said.

“Even when there’s no cases in any of the markets, all clubs are always anticipating the different flexibilities we need to build in.”

And while it could impact the preparation for matches, Pert couldn’t be more impressed by his side’s approach.

“The player groups have been amazing, the coaches are willing to change things literally by the minute, and it’s really the only way the AFL competition has rolled out over the last 18 months,” he said.

“We simply see this as the second year of the pandemic, and we treat every week like that.”

To listen to Pert’s full interview, listen below.