AFL Covid latest: Port Adelaide’s Round 19 clash with Collingwood set to go ahead at Adelaide Oval

As the nation’s Covid crisis intensifies, Collingwood remains set for a fly-in-fly-out clash with Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval — but the match time could change.

Fresh off a win over the Saints, the Power’s attention turns to Collingwood. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

Port Adelaide is still expected to host Collingwood at Adelaide Oval on Friday night despite Melbourne’s Covid chaos.

Although Power football manager Chris Davies told SEN “it probably doesn’t lend itself to be an evening game” because of the AFL’s fly-in, fly-out model and the city’s 11pm airport curfew, the plan late on Saturday was for it to remain in Adelaide at night.

Collingwood would need an exemption to come into SA because of the state’s border closure with Victoria, which recorded 19 new positive cases on Saturday.

When they played the Crows in Adelaide last month during Melbourne’s previous lockdown, the Magpies had to self isolate for 60 hours prior to the twilight match then travelled from the airport to the ground and back via a sterile corridor.

Geelong showed teams from states battling Covid outbreaks could stay overnight in SA if required, doing so when fog stopped it from heading home after its Round-13 clash with the Power.

SA Health said it was too early to know the details around this week’s game and what protocols the Magpies would be required to undertake.

It loomed as another moving feast and a rise in Victorian case numbers in coming days could change things.

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Fresh off a win over the Saints, the Power’s attention turns to Collingwood. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

On Saturday, Davies told SEN he thought the AFL would be considering an earlier start.

That would mean switching the game from Friday to either Saturday or Sunday.

“With the South Australian Government taking the approach of getting teams out straight after the game, there’d have to be some level of concern that Friday night would go ahead (as scheduled),” Davies said.

“It probably doesn’t lend itself to be an evening game.

“There are a number of things up in the air at the moment and I’m sure that there’s a fair bit of work to go before they confirm what next week looks like.

“It’s extremely complicated and obviously the AFL staff are doing a fantastic job to try and keep the season up and going.”

The league revealed on Saturday that personnel at eight clubs, including Collingwood, visited Victorian exposure sites over the past few days.

Each of those people have tested negative.

That news followed a week of fixture reshuffles and getting several clubs out of Melbourne.

Some football observers have suggested the league should consider a break in the season while the league dealt with the latest coronavirus issues.

Davies, a former Redbacks batsman, used a cricket analogy to explain why it might not work.

Ollie Wines and Aliir Aliir celebrate the win over the Saints. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

“The challenge with that is … you go off for rain and when do you come back on? You can’t come back on until everything’s sorted,” he said.

“I imagine the AFL will try to take the approach of trying to bowl through in the short term.

“If teams need to go to South Australia or teams go to Queensland, wherever it is to get games away, that’s been the approach of the AFL previously, but I’m not really sure what’s going to happen in the future.”

The Power became the first AFL team to fly into a coronavirus hotspot when they took on – and beat – St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Saturday.

About 50 Power players and staff were on chartered flights in and out of Melbourne then were set to quarantine for 48 hours when they returned to Adelaide, until both teams produced negative tests.

Port Adelaide will also be subject to testing again on days five and 13 and be under some movement restrictions in SA.

Power coach Ken Hinkley said his side was simply “controlling what we can control” ahead of its next game.

“We work from day to day, we don’t work from round to round now,” Hinkley said.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said football players were placed under a set of “fairly significant” restrictions that minimised the risk of Covid spreading through the community.

“This is a large industry and it’s also an important part of the fabric of our community,” Stevens said.

“I couldn’t imagine being in 14 days quarantine and not being able to watch footy, so, there are a lot of dimensions to this we try and manage.”