AFL and celebrities getting special privileges in Covid lockdowns

It appears the AFL is being tipped off to looming lockdowns, while celebrities are being granted privileges average Aussies are denied — and it’s starting to grate.

Steve Price

@StevePriceMedia

4 min read

August 13, 2021 - 2:30PM

Covid lockdown rules don’t seem to apply in the same way to the AFL and celebrities.

Opinion

Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.

On a Saturday morning five weeks ago at the Laurent Bakery on Toorak Road, I ran into AFL superstar Lance Franklin from the Sydney Swans.

He was staying at the same hotel as I was and getting ready for the Swans’ game against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel the next day.

Buddy was having a solo breakfast and we chatted about how he was confident his family would soon join him in Melbourne.

That weekend Sydney knocked off yet another team above them on the ladder and while Buddy only kicked a single goal, he looked dangerous as Sydney endured yet another week away from their home base.

Buddy and Jesinta Franklin were recently reunited in Melbourne: Picture: Phil Hillyard

The NSW Covid outbreak, which has only gotten worse, started with a June 26 lockdown in NSW that resulted in the AFL evacuating both Sydney-based teams – the Swans and Giants – to Melbourne.

This is where privilege over average kicks in. On the night the Swans were evacuated, the AFL was tipped off by either the NSW or Victorian governments – Victoria, I suspect – that the border between the two states was about to be slammed shut to anyone in Sydney.

Players were contacted by their football departments and advised to get to Sydney Airport for an early evening charter flight to Melbourne. They were told to pack for a couple of weeks away and now, seven weeks later, they still haven’t been home.

Sports stars, though, as we have come to realise, are a protected species when it comes to Covid and lockdowns. The privilege doesn’t end with the players. It extends to their families, support staff, coaches and executives.

On the same night that AFL evacuation plans were unfolding, other Victorians in Sydney on business, visiting relatives, or on holiday were blissfully ignorant about what was going to happen.

The Andrews government appears to be tipping off the AFL to looming lockdowns: Picture: Sarah Matray

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who had delayed the inevitable shutdown for nine long days, didn’t appear publicly to announce an initial Sydney lockdown until the Saturday around lunchtime.

Clearly there are rules that apply for a privileged few that don’t apply to ordinary Australians. I know of at least one Victorian resident here who is still trapped in Sydney.

By comparison the Swans players’ families not only have been spirited out of a Covid-ravaged Sydney, they are now in Melbourne. They were forced to quarantine on the Gold Coast for two weeks – gee, that would be tough during winter – but were then allowed preferential treatment and allowed into Victoria.

How the AFL was able to pull this off is clear – their mates in government think that keeping the AFL season alive is more important that any of the other worthy cases being told they can’t enter.

Dannii Minogue was reportedly allowed to quarantine at home. Picture: Hamish Blair

This them-and-us world of Covid privilege is starting to grate on people living through grim days of lockdowns and business collapses and holiday cancellations.

Melburnians can’t hold birthday parties for 10-year-olds and their friends, or even take a road trip to Lorne, but football players can fly around the country while their families bunker down in five-star hotels, all expenses paid.

Good luck to Buddy and Jesinta Franklin and their children, I wish them no ill will as it’s not their doing or fault.

Try explaining that, though, to Katrina Anderson — a Sydney grandmother who is double vaccinated but denied entry to Melbourne to care for her two grandchildren whose mother is fighting breast cancer.

Katrina applied through the right channels and even took numerous Covid tests just in case she was let in. Not only was her permit denied, she has never even been directly spoken to, to explain why.

Presumably, if her family had a connection with the AFL, she would be let in. But caring for a dying daughter isn’t a good enough reason.

That’s despicable.

Katrina Anderson was denied a compassionate exemption to travel to Melbourne to care for her daughter, who is fighting cancer.

Quizzed on the decision, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley just trotted out the normal heartless, unemotional response about backing health advice.

He said it was to keep Victorians safe – what garbage that is? Safe from a fully-vaccinated and Covid-tested grandmother?

Australians are a pretty forgiving lot, but there are so many examples that just make you angry – everything from celebrities being flown in for reality TV shows, taking up quarantine beds denied to Australians trapped overseas for months.

Officials are at pains to explain these are extra spots — if so, why not give them to more deserving cases? Is it really that important to watch a bunch of second-rate foreigners bitching at each other on Big Brother?

Just this week actor Russell Crowe in locked-down Sydney has been free to make a movie near Kiama south of the city.

And it’s been reported Dannii Minogue was allowed to quarantine at home in Melbourne, not in a hotel, after making new episodes of the Masked Singer.

The idea that we are all in this together is rubbish. It seems there is privilege and then there is pain.

Katie Hopkins was allowed to fly into Australia to be on Big Brother but has since left.

The longer governments lock us up in suburban Covid prisons, unable to even have family or friends over to visit for a Sunday roast or weekend barbecue, the angrier people will be with the ever-growing list of celebrity and sporting exceptions.

If it continues people will demand they get some special treatment as well.