Morris medal count switched from Monday to Wednesday to avoid clash with Queen's funeral

The league's night of nights is traditionally held on the Monday night leading up to the grand final on the Sunday.

However, O&M general manager Craig Millar confirmed the Morris medal will be now staged on Wednesday, September 21.

"We anticipated that potentially something like this was going to happen but we were waiting for confirmation from the SS&A Club," Millar said.

"We received that confirmation and due to a number of events and fundamentally trying to have the Morris medal count before the grand final, the only option we had available was September 21."

The AFL has also rescheduled the Brownlow medal count from Monday night and brought it forward to Sunday night instead.

It is believed that it will be the first time the league has been forced to switch its traditional Morris medal date other than last year due to COVID.

Last year the event was held in November after the season was abandoned without a finals series.

Millar conceded that the switch of dates could impact some club's preparations for the grand final.

Club's competing in the grand final traditionally train on the Wednesday and Friday night in the lead up with the league's biggest match played on the Sunday.

"There is no doubt that it is going to cause some level of disruption," he said.

"But I think the key is that there is only a minimum number of players required to attend from each club.

"So we are not talking about dozens of players that have to be there from the clubs in the grand final.

"We understand that it's not ideal but they are the circumstances that we find ourselves in."

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The format of the night will remain the same and will be live streamed.

"We anticipate a crowd of more than 200 to attend," Millar said.

"We spoke to our clubs and explained the circumstances that we were in with the public holidays next week on Thursday and Friday and a few other challenges.

"The clubs were more than understanding of the situation.

"One positive is we won't clash with the Brownlow medal now."

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