The first steps of a still-long journey back to AFL matches will be able to be taken as early as next week following a breakthrough outcome in a national cabinet meeting on Friday.

A staged recommencement for the 2020 season, suspended after round one due to the COVID-19 pandemic, can now be confidently planned by the AFL, state governments and medical health authorities.

A lifting from two to 10 on the number of athletes permitted to train together is expected to be among the new set of principles to be officially outlined after the next meeting of the national cabinet – next Friday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed on Friday that an Australian Institute of Sport-devised set of protocols would provide the framework for all sports bodies to re-start competition.

Ultimately, the full power of approval for AFL resumption will rest with the state governments, which have varying degrees of border control and social distancing which currently precludes team sport being played.

The AFL will spend Friday evening absorbing the content of the national cabinet deliberations.

It will not brief the CEOs and presidents of the 18 clubs until Saturday.

If indeed clubs are permitted to train in groups of 10 as early as late next week, it would provide encouragement to the hope of matches resuming in July, possibly late June.

AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking has already ruled that all clubs are to have a three-week "pre-season" before the resumption of matches.

In a long media conference after the national cabinet meeting, it was evident that a new set of "national principles" to be outlined next Friday would include a focus on re-starting the economy, inclusive of provisions applied to "sport and recreation" – which was a specific agenda item at the cabinet gathering.

The AFL has been steadfast in all its deliberations on the resumption of matches that any decision to restart would only be reached once it had a degree of confidence that the season could be completed without another shutdown.

It relayed a worst case scenario involving a potential requirement for some players, without their families, to be isolated in hubs for up to 20 weeks to the AFL Players' Association on Monday.

The AFLPA advised its members of that possibility the following day, and several senior players threatened to stand down under such a system.

The AFL industry remains hopeful that if hubs need to be used, that they are only in effect for a maximum eight weeks.