NORTH Melbourne dasher Jared Polec is an advocate for an "NBA-style" stacked football calendar later in the year as the AFL contemplates ways to still fit a season in.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan announced in mid-March the season was being slashed from 23 rounds to 17 because of the global coronavirus pandemic.
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McLachlan reiterated on radio last week that the plan remained for each team to play 17 matches, even if the season doesn't resume in early June.
All industry parties have agreed to play into December if necessary but there is also a strong likelihood of playing games every four or five days if the delay lingers.
"I'm a big fan of five games in three weeks. Less training, more games, so I'm on board with that, but just depending on the game-time situation," Polec told AFL.com.au.
"The way we played in round one – 16 minutes and time on – I believe you can play games with a four-day turnaround.
"It gives exposure to everyone on your list, too, so there will be a lot more rotations going through the games.
"It will be a bit more NBA-style, where you just do the bare minimum in training … then go into a game."
Polec said it was likely senior regulars would look to play at least four of the five games in that scenario.
"It might depend on what position you play, too. If you're on the outside, a bit like myself, you're not getting too banged up, which helps with recovery," he said.
"If you're on the inside, you get banged into, which slows recovery down a bit more, but it's a learning process … and it'll be an interesting time of the year, whether we play in June, July or even August.
"I'm just looking forward to it."
Brisbane football boss David Noble also told reporters last week the Lions were prepared to bunk somewhere like Melbourne for multiple weeks to fit a batch of games in.