Next set of fixtures likely to include matches played at Optus Stadium in WA hub
There is another hub in mind for the next slate of games. But this time, it could be Victorian teams packing their bags. And Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has embraced the challenge.
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Talks between the AFL and WA Government about a Perth hub have resumed, with the next set of fixtures likely to include matches played at Optus Stadium.
With Premier Mark McGowan refusing to budge on his hard border stance — ruling out a return to the usual home and away fixtures — The West Australian understands there are plans to revive the Burswood Peninsula hub first floated in April.
While discussions are in the preliminary stages, it is believed the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers will not be required to extend their stay on the Gold Coast beyond next month’s round five fixtures.
Instead, the AFL is determined to locate a hub for the next slate of games in Perth, with some Victorian teams having to head west for clashes with the Eagles and Dockers, as well as with each other.
Last month, Melbourne clubs baulked at the idea of spending between four and six weeks in a Perth hub.
Instead, all 10 Victorian clubs have been permitted to remain at home for rounds two to five while West Coast and Fremantle, along with the two Adelaide teams, have had to relocate to Gold Coast golf resorts for a month.
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But Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says Victorian clubs will have a responsibility to the game to play in quarantine hubs if required, with the Magpies willing to travel if they have to.
Buckley said he would not oppose jetting across to hunker down for the good of the game.
“Yeah, we understand that there’s going to be some sacrifices that have to be made,” he said.
“That’s not so much a sacrifice – it’s an investment in this season. It’s an investment in the game itself.”
He said he was “under no illusions” that the reason the league had worked so hard to get the season going included a need to work, supply entertainment for the community and to “underpin the present and future economic status of the game”.
“You need money coming in to fund some of the programs that the AFL have put in place, let alone the football clubs,” Buckley said.
“Anything that we can do to get it up and going, we are up to do, and we’ve got to stay adaptable and agile to be able to do that. As a football club, we’re open-minded into how we share that load across the 18 clubs. And if it means that we travel into a hub, and play some games in WA or in Queensland or even South Australia depending on what the back-end of the season looks like, we’d be comfortable to do that.
“We feel like we’ve been a good travelling side and we’d find the advantages in it and the opportunities in it, no doubt.”
Senior AFL officials are understood to believe it is only fair Victorian clubs share the travel burden during the COVID-interrupted season, prompting the renewed focus on a western hub.
The major stumbling block in earlier discussions was the need for interstate players to spend two weeks in hotel quarantine, as required by the current hard border provisions, which would potentially prolong their stay in WA by a fortnight.
One solution floated at the time was the creation of a self-contained quarantine zone for travelling clubs on the Burswood Peninsula — including Crown hotels and Optus Stadium — that would ensure there was no interaction between interstate players and officials, and the WA community.
It is understood that it is the model again being explored because it would allow for matches to begin as soon as interstate clubs arrived in WA.
WA Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson would need to be satisfied any potential hub would pose no virus transmission risk to the community.
It would also require Police Commissioner Chris Dawson’s approval in his position as State Emergency Co-ordinator.
Yesterday, Mr McGowan refused to provide timing for the resumption of travel with the Eastern States but said it was not likely to occur until late next month at the very earliest.
“We have not landed on a date. Not at this point in time, not in the foreseeable future,” he said.
McLachlan: ‘Worst case’ scenario could force GF change
Lauren Wood
Gillon McLachlan has assured Western Australian players that they will get certainty on how long they will have to spend in quarantine hubs by next week.
Reports emerged last night that West Coast was only willing to spend four weeks in its Queensland “high performance village”, with WA’s border closure remaining the hurdle to any fly-in fly-out fixture model.
South Australia is also maintaining a closed border with Adelaide and Port Adelaide to travel to the Gold Coast after this weekend’s Showdown.
League chief executive Gillon McLachlan said that negotiations with the governments were ongoing, but admitted that one scenario in play catered for a bye week that could push the Grand Final back a week to October 31.
“We won’t run ahead of (the government),” he said on Fox Footy.
“There’s two aspects of it - if and when the borders open up … the other part of that is how we’d roll teams over there and what the quarantine restrictions will look like.
“We’ll have a best case and a worst case scenario and we’ll hopefully get there in the next week or so.
“What our players need going into these hubs is certainty, and we’ll hopefully be able to provide that in the coming week or so.”
He maintained that West Coast and Fremantle players – who will this week move into their Gold Coast hub – needed clarity, and would get it within the next week or so, but that one scenario on the table could see the Grand Final pushed back.
“I’ve been talking with West Coast and the western Australians (governments),” he said.
“They want certainty, and it can’t be indefinite. Whether it’s four or five or six weeks, if the borders are still closed, we’re working on a model where we can roll the other clubs through those states. So how that looks and what the technicalities are, we’re working with the relevant authorities in Western Australia.
“One scenario does (have a bye, meaning the Grand Final could go to October 31), but there’s an alternate where it doesn’t.
“So where we land we’ll work through in the next 10 days or so, to have that as a contingency.”
If the season continues as planned with no bye week, the Grand Final will fall on October 24 with timings to be arranged between the AFL and Moonee Valley Racing Club with the 100th running of the Cox Plate also scheduled.
McLachlan said there was a commitment from the other 14 teams to “do their share of the heavy lifting during the year”.
While he said that October 24 remained “what we’re planning on” for the decider, anything could yet happen.
“There may be a bye or there may be things that come around and we could push it back, but that’s what we’re planning on,” he said.
“Last weekend in December (would be the last weekend we could play the Grand Final).
“I’ve said that consistently. I’m not being flippant about it. Things look good today, much better than they did three months ago, but we’ve always been committed – we’ll get this season away, and we’ll take as long as it takes.”
No excuses for Eagles in their new coast
Steve Butler and Mitchell Woodcock
A defiant West Coast have started Gold Coast hub life amid fires and false starts, but have refused to concede their biggest-ever challenge will dent their 2020 AFL premiership credentials.
Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett said on Monday night the club would make no excuses despite having to play at least its first month of the rebooted AFL season, starting with the Suns at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night, out of the hub.
Just hours before West Coast players flew out of Perth on Monday, two staff members already on the Gold Coast, integrity services manager Peter Staples and football operations manager Ben Sharman, were evacuated from the club’s temporary base at the Royal Pines resort because of a lift fire.
Both were unharmed and the Eagles plane also left safely after a false start, believed to be because of an air traffic control issue. The pilot had been forced to double back to the top of the runway to make a successful second attempt at lift-off.
There was a jovial atmosphere at training, hours before they hit the skies to head east.
Players were sharing banter while they did some running and light skill drills in groups of eight, keeping their two contact sessions for some possible runs at Metricon Stadium.
Some families of the players stayed to watch the players train, with children on the sidelines waving to their Dads, unaware of the monumental task they face in the coming weeks.
Father-of-four and coach Adam Simpson remained happily in the background, watching carefully from afar as his stars finished their last training run in WA for the foreseeable future.
They were all smiles as they boarded the buses just over an hour after the training session finished, waving goodbye to the staff left behind.
Superstar Nic Naitanui even stopped for a selfie with one of the bus drivers.
All the while there was no sense of drama or self-pity from the Eagles’ camp, who have remained stoic through the entire ordeal with Simspon at the helm.
West Coast have officially begun their foray to the Gold Coast hub, leaving their Lathlain facilities after training this morning.
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Players, officials and the families of Tim Kelly, Liam Ryan and Tom Hickey were put on three buses and taken straight to the tarmac at Perth Airport for their chartered plane east.
Staff gathered to say goodbye to the leaving party, in a low key fairwell after doing the more emotional stuff earlier in the morning.
The drivers of the three buses were in face masks and gloves as part of the precautions in place.
One was even brave enough to get a selfie with star Nic Naitanui.
Some Fremantle staff even caught a ride, with assistant Tendai Mzungu part of the Dockers contingent.
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No Eagles staff were impacted ahead of the club’s arrival in Queensland later today.
The resort, which is in close proximity to Metricon Stadium, will be West Coast’s home for at least the next month.
The Eagles held a training session at Mineral Resources Park this morning ahead of their 1pm flight to the Gold Coast.
Three West Coast players – Tim Kelly, Liam Ryan and Tom Hickey – will take their families to the Queensland hub, where the club will be based amid four fixtures on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane.
Originally published as Next set of fixtures likely to include matches played at Optus Stadium in WA hub
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