AFL 2022: West Coast announces team for North Melbourne game amid Covid outbreak
West Coast is bracing for even more Covid positives, with a WAFL midfielder on his way to Melbourne to help the depleted Eagles.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
West Coast appears to be bracing for even more Covid positives, with a WAFL midfielder not included in the club’s 26-man squad understood to be on the charter flight to Melbourne.
West Perth’s Luke Meadows is believed to have been put on the plane after coach Adam Simpson named a makeshift squad that included multiple players he had never even met.
While Collingwood’s AFLW final was postponed in the name of integrity after Covid sidelined several players, the AFL is determined that the Eagles’ home-and-away match against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on Sunday must go ahead.
The Eagles were asked to arrive at their Lathlain base on Saturday morning before taking a bus to the airport for an 11.30am (EST) flight to Melbourne.
Emergencies Chad Pearson (South Fremantle), Angus Schumacher (Perth), Declan Mountford (Claremont) and Luke Edwards were all onboard, along with Meadows.
Stream every match of every round of the 2022 Toyota AFL Premiership Season Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >
Mountford, 25, could play against his old side. He was drafted at pick No.60 by the Roos in 2015 and played 12 games.
Several other Covid top-ups were on standby at Lathlain on Saturday morning in the event more players turned positive when they completed their daily RATs.
Jack Darling and captain Luke Shuey will bolster the team. Darling only recently received his Covid vaccinations, clearing the path for his career to restart.
WAFL veteran and Sandover Medallist Aaron Black, 30, will make his AFL debut. He is not the Aaron Black who played 57 games for North Melbourne and Geelong.
Former Hawthorn defender Angus Dewar (formerly Angus Litherland) is in the squad line up for the Eagles, along with Brayden Ainsworth who was delisted by the club six months ago and signing for Perth.
EAGLES RING-INS REVEALED AS PUNTERS CRUNCH NORTH ODDS
West Coast will field just 18 listed players against North Melbourne on Sunday as the full scale of the club’s COVID outbreak was laid bare in team selection.
All-Australian ruckman Nic Naitanui, Harry Edwards, Josh Rotham, Hugh Dixon, Jamaine Jones, Brady Hough and Jake Waterman have all been withdrawn from West Coast’s squad despite being named on Thursday night, the seven entering the AFL’s health and safety protocols.
Winger Andrew Gaff is also out with a foot injury.
The outs are on top of Josh Kennedy, Tom Barrass, Jack Redden, Isiah Winder and Zac Langdon, who were already in isolation.
The Eagles have been forced to call on several top-up players to ensure the game goes ahead, the likes of Aaron Black, Angus Dewar, Stefan Giro and Brayden Ainsworth named.
Ainsworth is familiar with the Eagles, delisted at the end of last season while Dewar and Giro have AFL experience at other clubs.
The Eagles are expected to take an extended squad to Melbourne in case any more players are struck down by COVID protocols between now and Sunday.
AFL great Garry Lyon said the integrity of the competition was compromised.
“This is an asterisk season now,” Lyon told Fox Footy.
“If you’re a West Coast team, you’ve been absolutely compromised in your ability to compete.
“We’ve all been compromised to a degree but this is next level.”
Lyon also called for the AFL world to acknowledge the significance of West Coast’s predicament.
“This is the other side of the country and we all get accused sometimes of having an east coast bias,” he said.
“If this was Carlton right now who are flying or Collingwood who are starting to regenerate and all of a sudden they have 13 guns out, we’d be screaming.”
Earlier, the Eagles were scrambling to find replacement players from its COVID-19 top-up list in order to fill a full side for its clash against North Melbourne on Sunday.
On a day of drama at the club, the Eagles forecast at least 12 changes from last week’s team and are down to about 18 available players due to COVID-19 after the virus hammered the playing list in recent days.
It left the Eagles with a desperate hunt for replacements from the WAFL with the league adamant the game will go ahead at Marvel Stadium on Sunday as scheduled.
Remarkably, the bulk of the top-up players have never trained with the team, or even met some of the West Coast players.
Coach Adam Simpson said there will be plenty of introductions on Saturday before the team has its final training session and then flies to Melbourne for the Round 2 clash.
All players will have to test negative before boarding the charter flight on Saturday and then again before taking the field on Sunday.
The outs for the Eagles include Josh Kennedy, Tom Barrass, Jack Redden, Zac Langdon, Josh Rotham and Isiah Winder.
Subiaco 190cm backman Angus Dewar, Declan Mountford and Logan Young are all in line to tackle North Melbourne as the Eagles scramble for like-for-like replacements.
Betting was suspended on the game on Friday.
North Melbourne started the week at $2.10, had shortened to $1.70 after teams were released on Thursday night and then were wound into $1.40 as news continued to break on Friday about the Eagles’ outs.
By about 3pm, bookmakers across the country had shut down markets on the West Coast-North Melbourne clash.
Simpson said having young parents on the club’s list made them more vulnerable to the virus.
“I don’t want to compare what is going on, but I daresay we’ve got more kids than other clubs. I think we’ve got 10-13 dads,” he said on Friday afternoon.
Simpson said having young parents on the club’s list made them more vulnerable to the virus.
“I don’t want to compare what is going on, but I daresay we’ve got more kids than other clubs. I think we’ve got 10-13 dads,” he said.
“You can’t completely avoid the family situation, same as everyone else. But we also train together, too.”
Simpson said the club had not ruled out the prospect of discovering more positive cases across the weekend.
The Eagles are slated to play Fremantle in Round 3 next weekend in Perth.
“If you unfortunately get a couple of cases in Melbourne you’re stuck in Melbourne,” Simpson said.
“We’re working through a situation we all thought might happen.
“Having the right attitude is the number one priority – we can control that.
“We can control effort and workrate and the rest of it, we’ll do our best.
“I’m still in a positive state. There’s no point crying about it, we’ve just got to get on with it.”
The Eagles have been more susceptible to COVID-19 absences after the WA Government’s decision to maintain its tough border policies which largely kept the virus out in 2020-2021.
The virus had already hit the Eagles’ side which lost to Gold Coast last weekend.
In a slight boost, they will welcome Tim Kelly and Liam Ryan out of quarantine, while vaccine-hesitant Jack Darling was expected to return after a turbulent summer.
“It’s going to be the first game that Willie Rioli and Tim Kelly play together. We’re playing to win and there are going to be positives about this game,” Simpson said.
An AFL spokesperson said the game would not be postponed despite the Eagles’ COVID-19 crisis.
“The match between North Melbourne will go ahead as scheduled and we will continue to work with West Coast on the necessary arrangements,” the spokesperson said.
Carlton dodged a massive bullet this week when it lost only two players – Jack Martin and Adam Cerra – as well as coach Michael Voss to the virus, while St Kilda will be without Dougal Howard and Essendon will miss Nic Martin.
The Suns also announced that Lachie Weller would miss their home clash against Melbourne on Saturday night because of Covid-19.
Covid chaos: Bomber Rising Star out, Blues’ new staff order
Carlton has told its entire staff to work from home as the club works desperately to avoid losing more than two players and coach Michael Voss to Covid-19 positives ahead of Thursday night’s Western Bulldogs clash.
And Essendon’s five-goal debutant Nic Martin, this week’s Rising Star nomination, will miss Saturday’s clash with Brisbane after entering the AFL’s health and safety protocols.
Martin will be in isolation for seven days after being deemed a household contact of a positive Covid case. All Bombers players will be tested before entering the Hangar on Thursday.
The Blues have had to rule out gun recruit Adam Cerra and creative forward Jack Martin this week because of the virus as well as having Voss quarantined.
It is understood the Blues hierarchy contacted all members of staff on Wednesday in an effort to limit the number of people coming into IKON Park in the coming days.
Carlton takes on Western Bulldogs on Thursday night without two key players, its new coach and four members of the football department after a number of positive Covid cases hit the club following the club’s exciting Round 1 victory over Richmond.
All players other than Cerra tested negative for Covid on Wednesday, with everyone coming into the club’s training facilities required to have a RAT test.
Carlton superstar Sam Walsh will make a remarkable return against Western Bulldogs as the Covid-19 hit Blues eye another major upset.
While the absence of Cerra, who was one of Carlton’s best players in the impressive opening round win over Richmond, is a blow, he will be replaced in the engine room by Walsh in a quicker than expected return from ankle surgery.
The brilliant ball-winner was tipped to miss the first month of the season after suffering a dreaded syndesmosis injury, but the Geelong Falcons’ product sensationally roared back into serious consideration last week and is a certain starter against the Dogs.
Walsh’s return comes as star defender Jacob Weitering hailed the tactical and game plan changes which, under new coach Michael Voss, have helped solidify the defence and sharpen the midfield and forward lines.
Stand-in coach Ashley Hansen, who has stepped in for Covid-19 positive Voss, said Walsh has passed all of his fitness tests.
“‘Walshy’ is going to play, which is really exciting. He’s an important member of our team and did everything right in his preparation,” Hansen said.
“Everyone has got an individual timeline, and Sam has ticked all the boxes that we’ve required him to – both medically and physically.
“We kept an open mind with the timeline. Everyone is individual and has their own rehab process from the start, Sam was responding really well.”
Hansen said the Blues faced a significant challenge trying to combat the centre square potency of the Dogs, who are looking to rebound from a first-round loss and a tumultuous week for coach Luke Beveridge who was forced to apologise for his language toward a journalist.
Hansen coached at the Dogs as an assistant for nine years before he was poached by Carlton, helping provide the Blues with an impeccable understanding of their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses on Thursday night.
Weitering said Hansen was the “right man for the job” while Voss watched from home. Voss will be allowed to directly communicate with the coaches in the box throughout the game.
“I certainly know what (the Bulldogs) are capable of, they’re a really talented group, and last week we saw in patches what they are capable of, kicking eight goals straight in one patch and three from centre bounce. It is still a real strength of theirs,” Hansen said.
“We will empower our guys to play our brand and match it with them.”
To help try and combat the Covid-19 spread, Hansen said the Blues had conducted meetings in smaller groups, wore masks and worked outside where possible.
The Dogs conceded 16 marks inside 50m to Melbourne last week, potentially providing an opportunity for Harry McKay to do some damage in the same area on Thursday night after kicking only one goal against Richmond.
Cerra is expected to miss only one game with his isolation period to end next Wednesday, with the Blues not scheduled to meet Hawthorn until Sunday April 3.
Gather Round: Crows open again, Ken, Hawks set for blockbuster
One of the biggest moments of the AFL season came after the Power-Hawks final when Ken Hinkley told Jack Ginnivan he wouldn’t be flying to Sydney. Now we know when the rematch is coming.
Ralph: The key Dees developments that could save Goodwin’s job
Melbourne’s public review said it was capable of playing finals, but their game plan had to be refined, now the work begins for Simon Goodwin after a tumultuous 31 months, writes Jon Ralph.