Irish AFL players are facing a huge problem ahead of the new season as a result of Australia's national borders being closed due to Covid-19.
Irish players usually enter the country on elite sport visas, but will now need individual exemptions from the Australian Border Force.
Player agent Jason Hill told womens.afl: ""The AFL is working to secure the exemptions for the players, and hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll have confirmation of that, and we can finalise the visa process and then the booking of flights."
Last weekend saw Laois’ Zach Tuohy and Kerry’s Mark O’Connor's club Geelong lose to Richmond in the AFL Grand Final.
But a number of Irish AFL players have returned home in recent months and need to get back to Australia before the start of the new season, with training set to begin in early January.
Hill added: "It's pretty dire right now in Ireland, so there's the emotional aspect of leaving friends and family in this time, which isn't great.
"If you come out late December and have to quarantine for two weeks by yourself, that can impact Christmas.
"Then you've got the fact that when this first happened, it was quite a whirlwind, girls were on flights within 48 hours of the season being cancelled.
"If there was another wave here in Australia and the 2021 season does get cancelled, that emotional scarring of going through that again is something clubs will have to be aware of, and there won't necessarily be the amount of flights available that there were back in March."
