Crows captain Rory Sloane says footy shouldn’t be rushed back if it risks the safety of others, weighs in on Stengle incident
Adelaide captain Rory Sloane says the criticism over the Crows’ decision to delay revealing Tyson Stengle’s drink-driving offence to the public “dilutes” the seriousness of the matter.
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Adelaide captain Rory Sloane says the AFL can’t risk coming back too soon, as political leaders wait on advice from the national chief medical officer on the risk profile of the league’s proposed hub model.
And a conventional home-and-away season will also be looked at as South Australian premier Steven Marshall says that might be a wiser choice to get footy back up and running.
The AFL has ramped up its plans to get footy back underway after the COVID-19 pandemic put the season on ice after Round 1.
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Chief executive Gillon McLachlan has written to state leaders, including Mr Marshall, saying the AFL’s “current thinking is to establish quarantine zones, limit travel and reduce contact with the public by establishing an Olympic Village-style model”.
Sloane, also a vice-president of the AFLPA, said the playing group wanted to get footy back up and running but it couldn’t be rushed.
“Things are tracking well at the moment but who knows what happens over winter,” he said on Fox Footy.
“I don’t think we can rush coming back, we can’t risk the safety of everyone involved in the industry.
“I think coming back too soon would really affect the industry if things went pear-shaped.”
Under the plan put forward by the AFL all 18 clubs would be located in one or two regions of Australia, with clubs split into various villages within that hub.
Each village would essentially consist of a hotel that is solely dedicated to the AFL industry to control external people entering.
While the hub model has been gathering support, Mr Marshall told The Advertiser it might not necessarily be the best model to get the AFL restarted.
“I think that we all miss AFL but we only have one shot at getting this right,” Mr Marshall told The Advertiser.
“Depending on when the season resumes, we really need to get a better understanding of whether the risk is lower with a hub approach or with a conventional home-and-away season.
“If we’re going to be bringing 600 people from one state, all having to stay at hotels, all having to self-isolate, that has one level of risk to it.
“But taking 40 footballers in the plane directly to another state, playing their game and getting back on a plane back to their home state might have a similar sort of risk profile.”
Adelaide may also struggle to house the teams with Mr McLachlan saying in the letter the villages would need approximately 600 rooms per night for eight weeks.
Marshall has asked the nation’s chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy to provide advice about the risk models of the hubs or a more conventional home-and-away season where teams could be flown in and out for games.
This is expected next week and Mr Marshall said on Saturday that would guide his government.
“We will do whatever we are advised to do by the health authorities,” he said.
“If the risk is acceptable then I would very keen to see the AFL, I would be very keen to see the FFA (A-League) I would be very keen to see a lot of sport back here in South Australia.”
SA deputy chief public health officer Mike Cusack said if an AFL Hub was set up in Adelaide there would need to be planning to ensure risks were not introduced into the state.
“We are trying to return to a normal life, if that is possible in the era of the coronavirus, so obviously there would need to be detailed planning,” he said.
Sloane said for the older players in the AFL system, having to be away from families would be a challenge.
“From a real personal perspective and where I am in life we have a really young family here in Adelaide, Belinda and I have no family here, so to pack up and leave her one out (with infant son Sonny) for six to eight weeks would be incredibly tough,” he said.
“I would certainly look at taking them both with me depending on where the hub was at.
“We’d certainly look at something like that, but I suppose one of the parts I struggle with as well and this again is just from a position I’m in, who says my job is more important than her job and me to ask her to pack up and come with me just for the sake of my job.”
Criticism ‘dilutes’ from seriousness of Stengle incident
Adelaide Crows captain Rory Sloane says the criticism the club has copped for its timing of releasing information about forward Tyson Stengle’s drink driving offence “dilutes the fact” of how big an issue drink driving is.
Last Friday evening the Crows announced that Stengle had recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.125 after being stopped by police while driving an unregistered car in the early hours of April 9 – more than a week prior.
Stengle did not inform the club for two days and the Crows waited until a zoom meeting of all its playing group for the young forward to inform them of the indiscretion to make a public statement – which came after Bulldogs vice-captain Lachie Hunter’s own drink driving misdemeanour.
Stengle has been banned for four games and issued a $2500 fine for the incident.
But the Crows have cropped criticism for how long they took to disclose the 21-year-old’s offence.
Sloane said he believed this debate was detracting from the seriousness of the situation.
“For me it’s a big deal drink driving in the community, and it’s a lesson I think the whole community can learn from,” he said on Fox Footy.
“And the fact people are talking about when and how it was released dilutes the fact that this is a serious situation that should be taken seriously.
“And we should be talking more about the fact that people shouldn’t be drink driving and we can learn from it rather than when, where and how it (the information of Stengle’s offence) was released.
“To me it is irrelevant how it is released, it is more about the messaging and how serious it is.”
Sloane said he had talked about the incident with Stengle.
“We talked through the situation, his thought process and what plan he is going to put in now,” Sloane said.
“I’m huge on people learning from one person’s mistakes.”
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Sloane, a vice-president of the AFL Players Association, also warned against rushing into making widespread changes to the game post the 2020 season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Clubs have let go of staff, Port Adelaide on Friday afternoon announced that five would depart Alberton effective immediately, and list sizes are also under the microscope.
Sloane said it would be “naive” for players to think there wouldn’t be any cuts.
“There will be no winners out of this,” he said.
“It will be imperative that we work together to make sure the competition can stand on its own two feet.
“I think we are doing a good job as an industry at the moment in ensuring that everybody stays healthy and safe, once we get through that part and this first part of the pandemic I think that is when we can reassess and look at what is best for the competition.
“Hopefully we can come out of this winter period and make a decision from there and assess from there, I think that is the smarter thing to do you can’t make a decision now for football later on in the year.”
Originally published as Crows captain Rory Sloane says footy shouldn’t be rushed back if it risks the safety of others, weighs in on Stengle incident