The Lions are concerned that even if it’s safe for the match to go ahead on Thursday night, the wild weather is likely to hit crowd numbers.
The Lions are concerned that even if it’s safe for the match to go ahead on Thursday night, the wild weather is likely to hit crowd numbers.
By Sam McClure
Updated March 3, 2025 — 2.18pmfirst published at 10.09am
The Brisbane Lions have raised the possibility that the opening match of AFL the season against Geelong could be postponed until round three, when the Lions and Cats have a scheduled bye, because of tropical cyclone Alfred.
However, the AFL told this masthead Thursday night’s match would go ahead as planned at the Gabba unless the Queensland government advised the league to call off the match over safety concerns, and it was continuing to monitor the situation.
A spokesman for the AFL said it had received no such safety advice from the government at this stage, and that the Lions had not formally requested that the match be postponed.
Two club sources, not authorised to speak about contingency conversations, said the Lions were concerned that even if it was safe for the match to go ahead on Thursday night, the wild weather was likely to hit crowd numbers.
The category 2 storm was about 465 kilometres north-east of Brisbane and 410 kilometres east-north-east of Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast on Monday morning, and moving south at about 10km/h.
At a press conference in Sydney, league boss Andrew Dillon would not commit to a deadline for a decision on whether the game went ahead as planned.
“There’s no actual deadline, it’s when we’re absolutely 100 per cent confident about what’s going to happen, then we’ll make the call then,” he said.
Asked whether a decision could be made as late as Thursday morning, he said it could come even later.
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“We’ll continue to work with the bureau and the Queensland government about the forecast. It’s already slightly changed in the last sort of 12 or 24 hours, so, we’re three days out from the game, we’ll continue to work with the clubs, the broadcasters, but importantly, the bureau and the Queensland government on the game.
“For every game we have contingencies, and there are options with byes and the like, but at the moment the game’s scheduled for Thursday night and the Lions are working towards that, as are Geelong and as are the AFL and Channel Seven.”
He said strong winds were the main safety concern for the league.
“It’ll be the health and safety of our players and our fans who will be the number one priority in any decision that we make,” he said.
with Jonathan Drennan and Emily Kaine
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Sam McClure is an award-winning AFL journalist and broadcaster.Connect via Twitter or email.
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