Magazine - MCG Shield Final to Stay

By Editor in Cricket on 21st Jun 2010 13:00

Cricket Victoria has told the AFL it has no intention of moving the Sheffield Shield final from the MCG next season, leaving the league with little option but to break with tradition when it configures its extended football season for 2011.

Cricket's decision not to relinquish its contractual right to the hallowed ground if Victoria again earns the right to host the state final means the AFL will be forced either to shift the blockbuster season-opener between Carlton and Richmond across town to Etihad Stadium or stage the grand final on the first Saturday in October.

Though cricket's domestic fixture will eventually look very different, after Cricket Australia expands its Twenty20 league and potentially dispenses with the shield final, CV boss Tony Dodemaide said the summer game had stood its ground in the short term.

''Certainly they know our position, that we have a contractual entitlement at the MCG over that period and the priority over that period is cricket,'' Dodemaide told The Age. ''The domestic fixture has not been released yet but the AFL understands that we have got those rights over the MCG at that time and as far as we are concerned there will be a shield final and we intend to play it there.''

''We have had a discussion with cricket and they have reinforced to us how important it is they play their Sheffield Shield final at the MCG, so we respect that. A few of the options we might have had have tightened up,'' McLachlan said.

Should the grand final be moved to October, it will collide with the spring racing carnival. The Victoria Racing Club was unwilling to comment on this possibility last night. ''We'll talk to them when the time is right and we have made a decision about where we want to go,'' McLachlan said. ''We have a great relationship with the VRC and we'll talk to everyone.''

The split round will almost certainly fall in rounds four or five next season, to coincide with the Easter period.

Source & More: www.theage.com.au

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