Premier Steven Marshall said he expected to view the group’s presentation tomorrow and it would then be put to the AFL either late this week or early next week.

“The Adelaide Oval is unequivocally the expert oval in terms of handling the coronavirus, we’ve seen this right from day one,” Marshall said this morning.

“They’ve been able to work with SA Health to bring large crowds in and out of that facility.

“We’ve put ourselves in the very best position to host the AFL grand final and if not the AFL grand final, let’s hope we can get a number of finals.”

Queensland has long been the frontrunner to host the October 24 grand final after volunteering to host player hubs in the opening weeks of the season re-start in May.

Western Australia is also in the running to host the premiership decider at its 60,000-capacity Optus Stadium.

SA was initially slow to welcome interstate teams to Adelaide Oval but will now host at least one match every round until the end of the regular season, including some fixtures not involving any locally-based teams.

Marshall said the state government would consider offering financial incentives, but was “not at that stage at the moment”.

“I think the AFL grand final and the finals series are an opportunity to showcase our state right around the country and right around the world,” he said.

“Often we see that money is attached to these things.

“We’ll look at it from a commercial perspective. We’ll look at it to make sure there’s a return for the taxpayers of South Australia.”

 – AAP

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