Adelaide and Port Adelaide will be forced to play AFL ‘home’ matches against Victorian opposition at Melbourne venues due to South Australia’s lockdown.

The SA government announced on Tuesday the state will go into a seven-day lockdown to combat a fresh COVID-19 outbreak that has placed further pressure on the AFL’s bid to keep the season running as planned.

It means Port’s Friday night match against Collingwood at Adelaide Oval, which is set to be club stalwart Travis Boak’s 300th game, will have to be moved to Victoria.

Hawthorn were also scheduled to play the Crows in Adelaide but both SA teams are expected to head to Melbourne on Tuesday.

SA will join Victoria and Greater Sydney in lockdowns, creating serious issues for the AFL to deal with approaching round 19.

It will be the second time the Crows and the Power have had to relocate to Melbourne this year after briefly staying during a COVID-19 scare in SA earlier in July.

The AFL is bracing for the possibility of more players being ordered to isolate as a result of the growing number of exposure sites in Victoria.

The Western Bulldogs, Sydney, GWS and Essendon have already had key players forced into quarantine after attending a Tier 2 exposure site in Victoria.

Josh Dunkley (Bulldogs), Callum Mills (Swans) and Toby Greene (GWS) headline the star players who will need to miss multiple matches after going to the Wallabies’ Test match against France in Melbourne last week.

The AFL has already swapped three matches scheduled for round 20 to this coming weekend to avoid some complexities of the coronavirus situation.

The league wants to push through as planned until the end of the season but does have a bye scheduled before the start of the finals.

AAP