THE Lavington Sportsground has been stripped of its AFL pre-season clash between Richmond and Western Bulldogs.
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In a cruel blow for the newly-developed ground, the league abandoned the clash on Saturday, February 27, to safeguard the health and safety of the community.
Coffs Harbour, Morwell, Noarlunga , North Hobart, Mandurah and Whyalla also missed out on matches in the revised fixture.
"Each of those regions play an extremely important role in our game and the decision to revise the AAMI Community Series was made to protect the health and safety of the competition and the wider community which remains the priority for the league," AFL executive general manager of clubs and broadcasting Travis Auld said.
"It is communities like these that are the heartbeat of Australian Football and we hope to be able to return to each of those areas and play games there in the future.
"While we share the disappointment of these regions, we also look forward to more fans being able to safely attend AAMI Community Series matches, particularly in states where supporters have not been able to attend a men's game in over a year."
Carltn and St Kilda will launch the pre-season on Thursday, March 4 at Marvel Stadium in the first of three games in five days at the Docklands venue.
Collingwood and Richmond also play at Marvel on the following Friday night while the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne close out the series on Monday, March 8.
Games will also be played in Launceston (Hawthorn v North Melbourne), Fremantle (Fremantle v Adelaide), Sydney (Sydney v Gold Coast), Canberra (GWS v Brisbane) and Perth (West Coast v Port Adelaide).
