Fremantle and West Coast will be forced to relocate outside of Perth if the season restarts as the Western Australia government refuses to budge on border restrictions.
Isolation hubs are now likely off the cards as the league looks to adopt a fly-in, fly-out model if restrictions ease in the eastern states.
The league is aiming to restart in mid June and the Dockers and Eagles may have to play out the early rounds in another state.
Speaking on Wednesday, WA premier Mark McGowan said they would maintain 14-day isolation windows for all new arrivals despite the state recording its seventh consecutive day without a positive COVID-19 test.
"We're not going to compromise on our hard borders just to meet the needs of football," McGowan said.
"We will have discussions with the AFL to see if there's ways of managing it within our hard borders and I've already had a conversation with the AFL about that.
"At this point in time there doesn't appear to be a way forward that allows our players to fly to Victoria or Sydney and back again and that doesn't appear to be an option."
McGowan endorsed the hubs model and urged the AFL to reconsider implementing it.
"What I'd say to the AFL is that the hub arrangement in which teams were going to move to Western Australia and play football was a great arrangement and I'd urge the AFL to continue to pursue that arrangement," he said.
"Our football teams have been disadvantaged by the football hierarchy for a long period of time and if that's what happens (moving to play), that would be a further disadvantage for Western Australian teams."