AFL warned of complacency as COVID strikes 2021 season

Another COVID disruption has hit the AFL season and worse could be on the way as a leading medico warns of complacency.

Dyson Heppell after being tested for coronavirus.

AFL players are at risk of losing their social freedoms once again as the threat of coronavirus hangs over another season.

Footy legend Leigh Matthews was stunned on Saturday that the AFL had abolished COVID-19 testing after forking out more than $6 million on about 65,000 tests to help save the 2020 season.

Players from multiple clubs confirmed to the Sunday Herald Sun they had not been tested this year.

Sports medical expert Dr Peter Larkins said testing was not yet required – but warned: “We’re on a fine line from going back to last year if we’re not careful”.

Watch the 2021 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Every match of every round Live on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >

Western Australia recorded a new case on Saturday night, which was contracted after a member of the community visited one of the locations attended by an infected Victorian.

Perth and Brisbane have both called snap three-day lockdowns this season, while Melbourne entered a five-day lockdown during the Australian Open in February.

As complacency creeps back into the Victorian community, Larkins said AFL players needed to set the “benchmark” for hygiene and COVID-safe practices.

“If we find in the next one to two weeks that there’s suddenly some more community cases in the cities where AFL is being played, you really have to protect the playing group from that exposure,” Larkins told the Sunday Herald Sun.

MORE: WHAT COVID SCARE MEANS FOR ANZAC DAY GAMES

Dyson Heppell gets a COVID test during the 2020 season.

“If this evolves they’ll be asked to go back into very protected lifestyles. (That means) they’re not going out to the pubs, they’re not sitting in cafes and they’re sticking to their hygiene protocols that they were taught last year.

“They just have to be more vigilant than perhaps a normal community member would be in terms of who they’re mixing with to protect the competition.”

Players relocated to Gold Coast hubs last season, where they lived under heavy restrictions and were effectively cut off from society despite Queensland’s safe environment.

Normality has returned for players this year. But Larkins said there were no guarantees it would last.

“It’s not as if we’re COVID-free in the sense that it’s gone out of the community,” he said.

“That (living in hubs) is still a threat, because we know there are variants, like the UK and South Africa variant, that are much more difficult to deal with, and we’re now still finding a few cases.

“It’s just getting a little bit of a swell of momentum that says, ‘Gee, it’s still a threat’.

“We just have to avoid catching it by doing the personal hygiene stuff – that would be my message.”

Players and fans were locked out of footy clubs during 2020.

Fremantle will host North Melbourne as planned at Perth Stadium on Saturday night after receiving the all-clear following team-wide COVID-19 tests.

The Dockers all recorded negative results, as with the West Coast footballers and staff who travelled to Melbourne to take on Geelong at GMHBA Stadium.

Those Round 6 matches were plunged into chaos on Friday when a Victorian man returning from Perth tested positive to the coronavirus.

Collingwood was also caught up in the drama after playing the Eagles in Perth last Friday night and also underwent COVID-19 tests, but Sunday’s Anzac Day blockbuster is going ahead as planned.

Some Magpies, including captain Scott Pendlebury, have already tested negative, but others are awaiting their results.

Negative! Free to play 🙌🏻

— Scott Pendlebury (@SP_10) April 24, 2021

No fans are able to attend Perth Stadium for the Fremantle-North game because of the positive test.

Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, has since declared the Perth metropolitan and Peel regions would become red zones from 2.01am on Saturday.

The AFL is encouraging anyone who’s been in those red zone areas since April 17 to self-isolate, get a COVID-19 test and stay away from Victorian matches until they receive confirmation of a negative result.

The Eagles will head back to Perth on Saturday night on a private charter flight.

On landing home, they must abide by WA Premier Mark McGowan’s three-day lockdown directive, which won’t end until Tuesday.

Fremantle will be in the same situation, although its players have Sunday off and typically complete their recovery on their own.

- with Marc McGowan

Originally published as AFL warned of complacency as COVID strikes 2021 season