AFL Covid news: All the latest updates and fixture changes
What was meant to be a fun social media post of Fremantle and West Coast players sharing a plane could land both clubs in hot water. Here’s why.
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West Coast and Fremantle players could face sanction after being photographed wearing their masks incorrectly on the flight from Perth to Melbourne.
In an image uploaded to the Eagles and Dockers’ Instagram pages, West Coast’s Jamie Cripps and Freo’s Matt Taberner were both wearing their masks but had their noses exposed.
The WA teams had boarded a Virgin flight to Victoria in a bid to keep their season alive.
People can only remove their masks while eating or drinking during the flight, however Taberner can be seen storing his luggage and Cripps looks like he is chatting to his teammates.
It’s not the first time AFL players have failed to follow the mandatory mask-wearing policy on planes.
Adelaide players Taylor Walker and Luke Brown were caught with their masks down on a return flight from Sydney earlier this month.
The Crows were fined $50,000 for the COVID protocols breach.
SA footy great Graham Cornes tweeted on Wednesday: ‘The Crows were fined $50,000 for players not wearing their masks correctly. #justsaying’.
The Crows were fined $50,000 for players not wearing their masks correctly. #justsayinghttps://t.co/IzA8eG73fI
— Graham Cornes (@Cornesy12) June 29, 2021
FIXTURE SHAKE-UP: GAME MOVED AS CLUBS HIT VICTORIA
Richmond will face Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night in the latest Covid-enforced fixture swap, but no decision has been made on a game being moved to Tasmania.
The Suns were set to host the Tigers at Metricon Stadium but Queensland’s snap three-day lockdown saw them board a charter flight with the Lions to Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon.
Fremantle and West Coast were due to arrive in Melbourne on Tuesday night, with the location of the Dockers’ clash with Carlton down to two options.
They will either travel to Tasmania for a Saturday afternoon game, or head down the highway to Geelong’s GMHBA Stadium for a Saturday night fixture.
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GMHBA Stadium is already hosting matches on Friday night and Sunday afternoon, which is why the AFL appears to be leaning towards taking the game south.
The AFL’s executive general manager of broadcasting and clubs, Travis Auld, said he hoped to finalise the venue by Wednesday.
“It’s always good to take content to Tasmania, particularly when we already have a couple of games at GMHBA, so if you can spread it out, that works well,” Auld said on Tuesday night.
“It’s a pretty big game, that one, and a game I know that Tasmania would like to have. There’s nothing really in the way, other than time, before we lock that away.
“The only reason I say Tasmania may work well is that you don’t normally get the opportunity to get content in there in a year like this, so, if we can do that, with a game like Fremantle-Carlton, we’d take it.”
No other matches are likely to change, with Brisbane preparing to fly in and out of Adelaide, from Melbourne, on Saturday to face the Crows in front of a potentially capacity crowd.
The Sydney-West Coast match was already relocated from the SCG to GMHBA Stadium on Sunday.
“There’s one game we’re still working through but we’re in a good position,” Auld said.
“We’ve got a team that’s worked through this situation, and situations like this, for much of this year and we feel like we’re in a good place to get Round 16 away.”
VFL RETURNS AS VICTORIA BECOMES AFL’S UNLIKELY SAVIOUR
Melbourne is set to become the home of AFL with every club — aside from Adelaide and Port Adelaide — to call Victoria home.
Fremantle and West Coast will fly into Melbourne on Tuesday, while Gold Coast and Brisbane are also heading south.
Sydney and Greater Western Sydney relocated to Melbourne last week.
Fremantle’s move means its clash against Carlton will be played in Victoria, with Geelong’s GMHBA Stadium a possible venue.
But a double header at Marvel Stadium or a potential shift to Monday is also an option.
Marvel Stadium has games on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
The MCG is booked at 1.45 (Melbourne — GWS) on Saturday and 3.20 (Collingwood — St Kilda) on Sunday.
West Coast’s clash with Sydney will go ahead at GMHBA after it was moved from the SCG as a result of the evolving COVID outbreak in Bondi.
Richmond’s clash with Gold Coast, scheduled for Thursday night at Metricon Stadium, is also set to be played down south.
The Lions are travelling to Melbourne on Tuesday to ensure their match against Adelaide in South Australia can go ahead.
They will likely fly in and out of Adelaide on the same day.
Gold Coast players were told to arrive at the club on Tuesday morning with their bags packed in case they were forced to move out of the state quickly.
“We said to our players yesterday to be prepared for anything, be packed and ready to go,” Suns CEO Mark Evans said ahead of the club’s scheduled Round 16 clash with Richmond at Metricon Stadium on Thursday.
“As of this morning we will wait to see from the AFL as to whether that is required today or not.
“Our advice this morning was pack before you come to the club today.
“The AFL has worked with State Governments around the country to make sure matches can take place with complete health considerations.
“That sometimes means teams flying in a bubble, staying a short period of time, flying out of the state immediately and there are extra precautions in and around all the people connected to the football program.
“We have been following those for quite a while in any case. Today we are saying to our players it is business as usual but be prepared for anything.”
It was unclear yet how spectators would be impacted and if crowds for Thursday’s game would be restricted.
Evans said it was his understanding the AFL’s preference was to not form hubs in Victoria and instead have teams on the road for multiple weeks if required.
“That may mean if we were to leave today we may well fly back to Queensland for the game and then back to Victoria just so we can get to the next game,” Evans said.
Evans said no Suns player had been in any hot spots and were all clear to play while Gold Coast was also prepared to work with any players who needed to stay home for family reasons.
“It doesn’t always suit everybody to uplift and go straight away,” he said.
“If there are people with personal circumstances then that is something we have to deal with and we are very aware of that.
“That can be a staff member or player. If it doesn’t work they may stay and we might try and get them down to wherever we are at a later stage.”
PRIZED PICK AMONG 11 SWANS FORCED OUT OF SYDNEY
Eleven Swans footballers who didn’t travel to Melbourne – including prized draftee Logan McDonald – have fled Covid-19-impacted Sydney and are staying and training in Newcastle.
The Swans and Giants flew to Melbourne last Tuesday night at short notice, because of Sydney’s worsening coronavirus crisis, but took different approaches as far as how many players made the trip.
Sydney brought barely 30 players, knowing at that stage it had an SCG match scheduled for this weekend, but that clash with West Coast has since been switched to Geelong’s GMHBA Stadium.
Only long-term injured pair Braydon Preuss and Lachie Keeffe remained in NSW out of Greater Western Sydney’s playing group.
“We had a plan to be away for a week, two weeks at the most,” Swans coach John Longmire said on Monday.
“That’s what we would’ve liked to have done, when we had the three hours’ notice.
“We’re just working through what to do with a few of those boys there who we’d like to get down as well.”
The AFL has been contacted for comment.
The decision to leave McDonald behind was based on Sydney’s longer-term plan for last year’s No. 4 draft pick, whereby he can do more strength work and focus on specific parts of his game.
McDonald’s kicked nine goals in seven matches – the most recent of them against Hawthorn a fortnight ago – and Longmire said he had “exceeded our expectations”.
“We wanted to put him on a specific program for a couple of weeks,” Longmire said.
“That’s what the original plan was, when we had a four-hour window to come to Melbourne, so how long that goes for now, we’re not quite sure.
“That development part of the game is a bit of a challenge with young players and how we can keep managing their development with what’s been going on.”
Regional NSW, including Newcastle, is considered an orange zone – from which people can apply for a permit to enter Victoria – but the stranded Swans are not able to fly to Melbourne at this stage, because they were in a red zone.
The AFL Players’ Association is keen for Swans and Giants players to be able to return to NSW at the conclusion of Round 17, with that weekend ending on July 11.
The Sydney Derby is fixtured for Round 18 but could be switched from Giants Stadium to Canberra if the coronavirus situation is not under control by then.
The NSW Government’s two-week lockdown, which includes Greater Sydney, will last until at least midnight on July 9.
The prospect of a longer stint in Melbourne is a possibility, given the Covid-19 outbreaks in various states and the Northern Territory, but Longmire said he wasn’t looking too far ahead.
“You really take it one day at a time down here when you’re in these sorts of situations,” he said.
“You try and live in the moment and you don’t project too far out.
“I think as soon as you start projecting too far out; you start talking about all the what ifs and which way it goes, and things change so quickly that you’ve really got to live in the moment.”
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