AFL 2020: Wild details emerge of Elijah Taylor, girlfriend’s COVID breach
More pain may be in store for Elijah Taylor as wild details emerge of how he smuggled his girlfriend in to the Sydney Swans isolation hub.
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No wonder he was banned for the season.
Elijah Taylor’s girlfriend reportedly crossed a golf course and jumped two fences to reach the Sydney youngster inside the Swans’ quarantine zone on Friday night.
WA-born Taylor was part way through a 14-day isolation with his Sydney teammates at the Joondalup Resort in Perth when the duo pulled off the covert operation.
Lekahni Pearce, 18, had just hours earlier completed her 14-day quarantine after flying in from Sydney before making a daring run to be with her boyfriend.
But the pair were discovered by two senior teammates, according to Footy Classified, and brought to the attention of head of football Charlie Gardiner.
“So it wasn’t a naive or ignorant mistake. It was premeditated, considered and executed so that’s really disappointing,” former Fremantle coach Ross Lyon said.
Sydney was fined $50,000 (half of which was suspended) for Taylor’s breach and coach John Longmire said the club is still “working through” whether to hand down its own penalties to the 19-year-old, on top of the season-long ban the AFL has already delivered.
“It’s obviously sinking in and he’s very quiet, as you’d imagine, and no doubt reflective,” Longmire said at a press conference.
“It’s a very bad decision that he’s made. If you step back, it’s an immature decision and not every player that you get when you go to the national draft has got the same maturity levels and the same backgrounds.
“You have to work through those issues and help educate and hopefully you get out the other side and you make a difference in these young people’s lives. It’s not just about football. You sit down and talk to them about decision making and their life skills.
“What you don’t know is something like COVID coming up and rearing its head and, in Elijah’s case, him being away from the football club for three months during the shutdown period. He only got to our club in December.
“That doesn’t take anything away from how serious it is and the responsibility that absolutely sits with Elijah, but just puts some context around these things.”
The Swans had deliberately sought out Taylor — who has played four games in his rookie season after being drafted from Western Australia last year — ahead of the trip to his home state to explain the risks.
“We talked to Elijah specifically before we left and made sure that we all understand what environment we’re going into,” Longmire told AFL 360.
“He still made a very poor choice, he still made a decision to deliberately breach the quarantine and it’s unacceptable, and the ramifications are very much suited to what he did.
“It was a decision that put so much at risk. He’s only a young player, he’s in his first year of AFL footy, but it was still a terrible decision that has big ramifications.”
The Swans and the AFL were slammed by WA Premier Mark McGowan.
“It’s very disappointing,” McGowan said on Sunday. “The AFL gave us every assurance this wouldn’t happen. The Swans have let us down, the AFL has let us down. We’re disappointed in both organisations.
“I received an apology from the AFL this morning. I appreciate that but … they promised us this wouldn’t happen and they let us down.”
The Premier’s comments reportedly angered the AFL. “He’s making them jump at every turn and really hurting their brand,” Footy Classified’s Caroline Wilson said. “They were angry at those comments.”
Originally published as AFL 2020: Wild details emerge of Elijah Taylor, girlfriend’s COVID breach