Here follows the AFL news list for this week. The AFL media department will issue a news list each Monday through the course of the season, until the Monday after the 2015 AFL Grand Final (the news list will be issued on Tuesday in the weeks covering Easter and the Queen's Birthday long weekend). The news lists covers the basic key information for each week of the year and a number of reminder points have been included below for this first week on the resumption of matches.
1 PROGRAM OF MATCHES (all times are local)
NAB Challenge:
Thursday February 26
Hawthorn v Collingwood at Aurora Stadium, 7.10pm
Friday February 27
West Coast v Carlton at Rushton Park (Mandurah), 4.10pm
Saturday February 28
Brisbane Lions v St Kilda at Moreton Bay Sports Complex, 3.10pm
Western Bulldogs v Richmond at Whitten Oval, 4.40pm
Sunday March 1
Adelaide Crows v North Melbourne at Centenary Oval (Port Lincoln), 4.10pm
Gold Coast Suns v Geelong Cats at Tony Ireland Stadium (Townsville), 3.40pm
2 IMPENDING MILESTONES
AFL Life Membership Drew Petrie, North Melbourne. Drew is due to qualify for AFL Life Membership with his 300th official game since his debut in 2001, comprising 269 premiership games, 28 pre-season games and two International Rules matches.
3 TRIBUNAL MATCH REVIEW PROCESS
The expected process for the 2015 AFL Season under the AFL Match Review system is that the AFL will issue a media release late on the Monday after each round detailing the penalties to be offered to players for incidents from that round of matches, or the reasons why no further action was to be taken.
The clubs and players then have until 11am on the Tuesday morning to decide whether to accept the penalty on offer, or whether they wish to contest the charge at a Tribunal hearing, to usually be held on the Tuesday night. The AFL will formally detail all instances on the Tuesday of whether cases will proceed to the Tribunal or not.
4 TRIBUNAL HEARING LOCATION
The AFL Tribunal is held in the AFL media room on Level LB2 at Etihad Stadium. The AFL wishes to advise that all media covering the Tribunal hearings at Etihad Stadium need to park in the B2 car park (entry off the Bourke St extension) and report to the Etihad Stadium security office to gain admittance via the internal ring road. There will be no access via AFL House to any AFL Tribunal hearing through the season, as our offices will have closed by 6pm each day.
5 CURRENTLY SUSPENDED PLAYERS
The AFL wishes to advise the players that have completed and currently serving MRP suspensions across the competition are as follows:
Completed:
Nil.
Currently Suspended (for the premiership season):
Chris Dawes, Melbourne. One match. One match to serve at start of 2015 season from round 23.
6 GWS GIANTS EXPANSION COMPENSATION PICK
As a reminder to all media, the AFL wishes to advise the following GWS Giants expansion compensation pick MUST be used at this year¹s 2015 NAB AFL Draft. Expansion picks were able to be activated in any of the five drafts in the period 2011-2015 and the following selection remains available.
Gold Coast Suns, end round one selection. Received from Fremantle (compensation for the loss of Rhys Palmer) via a trade to the GWS Giants in 2011 and then a trade to the GC Suns in 2012.
The club is able to trade this selection in the 2015 AFL Exchange Period.
7 2014 LAWS OF THE GAME INSTRUCTION DVD
The AFL umpiring department has been visiting all clubs and the AFL¹s rights-holders to present the Laws of the Game instruction DVD, in preparation for the 2015 season. A general session will be available to any interested media in Melbourne later this week on Wednesday February 25 at AFL House, in the Mike Sheahan media centre at 11am.
8 2015 AFL KEY DATES
Please find below the INDICATIVE key dates for the 2015 season around club list requirements, AFL Trade Period and the NAB AFL Draft Process:
Friday 9 October - NAB AFL Restricted Free Agency Offer and Unrestricted Free Agency Period Commences.
Friday 9 October by 2pm NAB AFL Father-Son Bidding Nominations; Academy Bidding Nominations lodged with AFL.
Monday 12 October 10am - Father/Son & Academy Players Bidding Meeting; NAB AFL Trade Period Commences.
Sunday 18 October at 5pm - Close of NAB AFL Restricted Free Agency Offer and Unrestricted Free Agency Period.
Wednesday 21 October - NAB AFL Restricted Free Agency Matching Offer Three-Day Period Ends
Thursday 22 October at 2pm NAB AFL Trade Period Closes.
Friday 30 October by 2pm - List Lodgement (1); Rookie Promotion to Primary List; Retained 2nd & 3rd Year Rookies; Scholarship Players; Alternate Talent Player Nominations, TPP Estimates.
9 MEDIA ENTRY TO THE MCG
The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) wishes to advise all media working at matches at the MCG they should enter the ground through Gate 3, unless they have underground parking for particular matches. Access control at the ground does not allow entry at Gate 2, for AFL accreditation passes. Further, the MCC also wishes to advise that any equipment being taken up to the host radio boxes or television broadcast boxes should be taken up via goods lift 8, and not the patron lifts 5-7.
10 MEDIA ENTRY TO ETIHAD STADIUM, PRIOR TO PUBLIC GATE TIMES / COLLECTION OF AFL RECORDS
All media who require entry to Etihad Stadium before public gates are open can do the following: Media may enter via Gate 9 from Level B3 (carpark) and Level 1 (concourse) one and a half hours prior to gate entry time. There will be a staff member at each entry point who will check AFL accreditation and will grant access to the Corporate Suites Level where they can access the Press Box, Radio Boxes and TV Broadcast area. A match day AFL record can be collected (one per person) from the customer service staff on the corporate suites level.
