AFL Northern Territory (AFLNT) wishes to advise it has received confirmation that the 2019 Toyota AFL Premiership Season Round 18 game between Melbourne Football Club and the West Coast Eagles Football Club scheduled for TIO Traeger Park on Sunday 21 July will go ahead as planned.
However, due to identified surface issues; namely around turf coverage, surface hardness and irrigation, it has been determined that all activity on the oval scheduled for any date after this Sunday 23 June will be rescheduled elsewhere.
The decision to get all activity off the oval has been made to give the Alice Springs Town Council four weeks to ensure the ground is in top condition for the weekend of the AFL game.
As a result, a total of eight games in Round 9 of the TIO CAFL and Round 8 of the Country League and Community Cup have been impacted and will move to Jim McConville Oval, where the Council has installed demountable rooms.
AFLNT CEO Stuart Totham said moving games wasn’t ideal but doing so helped guarantee the AFL game would go ahead.
“We thank the CAFL clubs, players, volunteers and supporters for their understanding in this matter. Minor disruptions to next weekend’s local games will help ensure TIO Traeger Park is in the right condition for the big AFL game next month.
“It’s important we continue to bring the elite game to our backyard because of the positive impact and far-reaching effect its presence has on the community. We also thank the Alice Springs Town Council for the work done to date and are confident they’ll have the surface in top condition in the next four weeks,” he said.
The CAFL Senior Women’s games scheduled for Round 9 next Friday night (28 June) between E-Girls vs Alkamilya and West vs Rovers have now been moved to Sunday at Jim McConville Oval.
While reconfiguring the fixture, the last five rounds of the Senior Men’s competition have been confirmed, with each round’s action beginning with the Under 15 Boys at 10:30am.
On changing the fixture to account for Round 9 of the CAFL season being moved off TIO Traeger Park, it became apparent that some teams would go two months without playing on the ground before finals begin.
As a result of this, rounds 14 and 15 have been rejigged so that games previously scheduled for TIO Traeger Park have now moved to Albrecht Oval, and vice-versa. This move ensures all TIO CAFL teams get to play on TIO Traeger Park at least once in the last four rounds of the home and away season.
A decision on the Swisse Wellness VFLW Round 11 game between NT Thunder and the Casey Demons scheduled for TIO Traeger Park on Saturday 20 July, the same weekend as the AFL game, will be made in due course.
For the updated fixtures please visit the SportsTG site here: http://websites.sportstg.com/assoc_page.cgi?assoc=3797
Tickets for the AFL game are available via the NTix website here.
