North Melbourne sets deadline for vaccine-hesitant midfielder Jed Anderson to get Novavax jab
North Melbourne has set Jed Anderson a new deadline to receive the Novavax jab if he wants to revive his stalled AFL career.
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North Melbourne has set vaccine-hesitant midfielder Jed Anderson a Monday deadline to receive the Novavax jab if he wants to revive his stalled AFL career.
There has been increased speculation in recent days that Anderson may yet take the protein-based Novavax, which became available in Australia this week.
But the Kangaroos have set a Monday time frame for which this needs to happen, as they want to know the final make-up of their playing list less than a month out from the start of the 2022 home-and-away season.
North Melbourne has been in constant dialogue with the 28-year-old, seeking clarification as to whether he was willing to take Novavax.
Anderson has remained in Darwin throughout the off-season and has been following an individual training program, set by the Kangaroos’ new high performance team.
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He had an adverse reaction to his first Covid-19 vaccination in mid-December and his reluctance to receive a second jab meant he could not train with North Melbourne under the AFL’s mandate.
The club has always maintained it was hopeful – more so than confident – that Anderson would finally have a second jab.
Anderson is about to enter the final year of his contract and his AFL career would almost certainly be over if he refuses a second jab.
Given he has trained away from the group, although he has participated in online meetings, it is not expected that Anderson would be match-fit to play in the early rounds of the season.
The club had been considering playing him in a predominantly defensive forward role, given the Kangaroos’ array of young midfielders, along with the recruitment of hard-bodied onballer Hugh Greenwood.
West Coast premiership forward Jack Darling is the other AFL player considering taking Novavax, having failed in a bid to win a medical exemption to train and play without taking the vaccine.
It is understood the AFL rejected Darling’s application, meaning the only way back for him would be to take Novavax.
Friday was the AFL deadline for WA-based players to receive a second vaccination. Two doses of Novavax three weeks apart would be required for Darling to be allowed back into the West Coast facilities.
If the 29-year-old agrees to take Novavax in the coming days, he would still have some chance to be available for West Coast’s early matches of the season, pending his fitness.
Darling is under contract on around $750,000 per season.
AFL clubs believe players entering WA will have to have a third booster shot in coming weeks, as they prepare for fly-in fly-out protocols.
Discussion at a recent meeting of AFL chief executives centred on the likelihood that AFL players may need to have a third booster shot to be considered fully vaccinated.
ANTI-VAXX MOTHER IN LAW, 5G SCEPTIC INFLUENCING DARLING
The vaccination saga surrounding Eagles forward Jack Darling could yet have a late twist with football sources now “hopeful” Jack Darling will overcome his vaccine reluctance and accept the freshly approved Novavax within a week.
While West Coast are yet to be officially advised of any change in Darling’s vaccination stance sources said they believed Darling to be a good chance of having the protein-based Novavax when it became more readily available in WA.
Darling has effectively been in exile from the Eagles since January 21, the deadline for all players and staff at AFL clubs to have had their first dose of an approved vaccine.
The deadline for the second dose falls this Friday and the Eagles were expected to consider putting Darling on the club’s inactive list if he had not given an indication of a change of heart by then.
Being shifted to the inactive list would have cost Darling hundreds of thousands of dollars. His pay packet, thought to be more than $750,000 per year, would have been cut by 75 per cent and he would have also lost additional endorsements.
The lengths Darling had gone to to try and avoid the vaccination became clearer on Tuesday with the revelation that he had sought a medical exemption from the AFL to continue to train without the vaccination.
The Eagles had also sought a temporary exemption to allow Darling to stay connected to the club until the vaccination issue was resolved but both bids were unsuccessful.
Darling’s mother in law Frances Braham has been a leading figure in anti-vaccination protests on the Goldfields, although she said in an interview that she was anti-mandates rather than opposed to the vaccines themselves.
Darling is also understood to have taken advice from Tasmanian “integrative” doctor Russell Cooper who has been a key figure in promoting so called technological diseases like EHS (electro hypersensitivity) which it is said can be cause by 5G devices.
If Darling gets his first vaccination dose within the next week it is likely to be another three weeks before he could get the second dose which would enable his return to the club, taking it to the cusp of round one.
But the importance of that return has been heightened in recent days by the foot injury to Oscar Allen which will see him in a moon boot for three weeks and a pectoral injury to forward Jamie Cripps which will keep him out for at least the first month of the home and away season.
EXILED STAR’S LAST-DITCH EXEMPTION BID FAILS
Glenn McFarlane and Jon Ralph
Exiled West Coast forward Jack Darling has failed in his bid to secure a medical exemption to resume his AFL career, with the Novavax vaccine shot now the last avenue to save his $750,000-per-season contract.
It is understood the 2018 premiership player applied to the AFL seeking a clearance to return to the Eagles, hopeful he could receive special dispensation. He was denied.
The Herald Sun reported last month Darling was considering taking the protein-based Novavax – which became available in Australia this week – given vaccine-hesitant people believe it is a more natural vaccine.
The AFL deadline for WA-based players to receive a second vaccination is on Friday, which Darling won’t be able to meet as he has yet to have one jab.
If the 29-year-old chose to take Novavax in the coming days, he would still have some chance to be available for West Coast’s early matches of the season, pending his fitness.
Two doses of Novavax three weeks apart would be required for Darling to be allowed back into the West Coast facilities.
It comes as North Melbourne faces its own issues with vaccine-hesitant midfielder Jed Anderson close to making a decision on his own AFL career.
The 28-year-old has remained in Darwin throughout the off-season. Anderson had an adverse reaction to his first Covid-19 vaccination in mid December and his reluctance to have a second jab meant he could not train with North Melbourne under the AFL’s mandate.
The club has been in constant contact with Anderson, who has to make a decision on whether he will take Novavax or come to a decision that his AFL career could be over.
West Coast has been ravaged by injury, with fellow forward Oscar Allen (stress reaction in his foot) as well as other casualties including captain Luke Shuey (hamstring) and small forward Jamie Cripps (pec).
West Coast coach Adam Simpson admitted recently he was helpless as he waited for Darling to make a decision on his future.
“As a coach, we’re a player down and he’s a pretty important player, so I hope it gets worked out,” Simpson said.
“I’ve texted him a couple of times, but there’s not much we can do at the moment.
“It’s probably between Jack and the club to work through and the mandate is in place. It’s out of my hands personally.”
Deakin University Chair in Epidemiology Catherine Bennett said recently players might more readily take novavax after hesitating with other vaccines.
“They don’t understand how the process is turned off (under MRNA vaccines) and it worries them. If they don’t understand that and it worries them, this vaccine has appeal and some people have been waiting for a long time for it. They think of it as a more traditional style of vaccine in that the protein is created outside the body and injected,” she said.
“They don’t worry that the protein will continue to be made (in their bodies). That is what the misinformation has targeted. It’s not a true difference.
“The protein is made in insect cells. People like the sound of it because it’s got a bit of tree bark and some insect cells and it sounds very natural. For some people it allays their particular concerns in a way that will get more people off the bench and into vaccinated groups.
“There are also people who have had a reaction to one of their doses and it’s really important for them to have another vaccine available so we can work around their concerns.”
Clubs believe players entering WA will have to have a third booster shot in coming weeks, as they prepare for fly-in fly-out protocols.
But 80 Gold Coast players and staff have already had the booster with many more players across the league to take a third shot as soon as they become eligible.
STAR EAGLE TAKING $500K GAMBLE OVER VACCINE STANCE
Mark Duffield
Vaccine reluctant Jack Darling could face a $500,000 decision within a week as the Eagles ponder whether to put him on their inactive list.
Under a three-stage vaccination rollout program released by the AFL last year, players were to be fully vaccinated by February 18.
Darling, who has already missed the January 21 deadline for a first shot, would at least give some indication of a change of heart before February 18 to reduce the risk of being made inactive.
The 29-year-old has a four-year contract worth close to $800,000 per year still to run at West Coast. But that figure would be docked by 75 per cent if the club places him on their inactive list.
Allowing for money that Darling would have earned so far this year, that could cost him about $500,000 this year.
A more drastic decision on whether Darling’s contract should be terminated would likely be left until the end of the season as the club weighed potential changes to vaccination rules because of changes in the status of the pandemic, or whether another vaccine might win approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration that Darling might be willing to take.
The club is concerned that if Darling’s contract gets terminated he could be snapped up for free by a rival club should his vaccination status and/or COVID 19 protocols change.
There had been some hope he would agree to take the protein-based Novavax but there is as yet no firm indication that he will.
West Coast have worked at putting a range of contingencies for Darling’s unavailability in place. over recent weeks.
But the club has hosed down fears that the man earmarked to replace Darling in their forward structure, Oscar Allen, has suffered a pre-season injury.
Allen was missing from match simulation last Friday and training sessions on Monday and Wednesday this week. It is not clear if he will take part in match simulation scheduled for Friday morning this week.
When asked about the forward’s absence, the Eagles said the 22-year-old was scheduled for a light training week.
Other sources have indicated that Allen had suffered no injury but had experienced some soreness and tightness around his glutes and had been backed off from training for a week as a precaution.
Mid-sized forward Jake Waterman has trained impressively to make a case for more AFL opportunities but is likely to need at least one and probably two taller options around him.
East Fremantle and former Fremantle forward/ruck Luke Strnadica has been a clear frontrunner for one of the available spots on the Eagles list after joining the club for summer training even though he has spent much of it walking laps and nursing a foot problem.
West Coast are keen on boosting ruck depth and Strnadica’s ability to pinch-hit as a forward gives him another string to his bow.
And West Perth’s Tyler Keitel and East Fremantle and former Fremantle forward Hugh Dixon were added to the train-on players this week.
Keitel, who kicked 70 goals for West Perth in 2021, got a running start on Tuesday when he kicked two goals in match scrimmaging, including an impressive pack mark in the goalsquare pitted against Shannon Hurn.
D-DAY LOOMS LARGE FOR VAX-HESITANT ROO
— Glenn McFarlane
North Melbourne’s hard-nosed midfielder Jed Anderson faces a delayed start to the 2022 AFL season – and a fresh internal challenge from a core of hungry, young on-ballers – even if he chooses to take the Novavax vaccine later this month.
Just over a month out from the Kangaroos’ opening round clash with Hawthorn, Anderson remains in Darwin and has yet to have his second Covid vaccination after suffering an adverse reaction to the first dose in mid December.
The club remains hopeful Anderson will agree to take the protein-based Novavax vaccine when it becomes available for Australians from February 21.
Only doubly-vaccinated players can train and play with AFL clubs at this stage, but it is not yet clear whether the AFL will mandate a third jab in the future.
Sources said the prospect of boosters were the topic of conversation at the AFL chief executives meeting earlier this week.
It is understood over 300 AFL or AFLW players have already received their third dose.
A decision on whether Anderson receives his second jab would need to be made soon if he wants to resume his AFL career.
The Kangaroos have one position remaining on their list, which is set to go to former Crow Tom Lynch, who has become a development coach.
If Anderson chooses not to return, the club could potentially add another player in the pre-season supplemental selection period (SSP) before March 9.
Former Demon Marty Hore is currently training with the Kangaroos.
Anderson is far from an anti-vaxxer, but sources say that his adverse reaction to the first dose made him reluctant to take a second.
Even if he agrees to take Novavax, as the club hopes, it is unlikely he would be match-hardened and ready for AFL selection for at least the first month of the season, potentially longer.
Anderson, who turned 28 last week, has been working on an individual training program devised for him by the club’s new high performance team. He has taken part in club meetings on Zoom.
The Kangaroos have been in constant communication with Anderson – as coach David Noble told News Corp last week – but having not trained with the club since the end of last season, he won’t be fully fit when the season starts.
Anderson is one of the most-popular players on North Melbourne’s list and his experience and hard edge have been important in helping to fast-track some of the club’s younger mids.
At his best, he brings the toughness around the ball that his team needs.
But he is coming off a frustrating 2021 season, where an ankle injury restricted him to only seven matches, which provided opportunities for some of his younger teammates.
This year marks the final year of Anderson’s current contract, and if he returns to Arden St, he is facing plenty of competition as the squeeze goes on in the Kangaroos’ midfield.
North Melbourne is still evolving as a team, but one of the most exciting areas is its core of midfielders.
New recruit Hugh Greenwood, plucked wisely from under Gold Coast’s nose, is considered a certain starter in the Kangaroos’ midfield and will bring some toughness to the role.
Jy Simpkin is the reigning Syd Barker medallist, looks a future captain and at 24 still has scope for improvement as a player and leader.
Luke Davies-Uniacke is starting to make the move from talent to finished product, Tarryn Thomas looks a star in waiting, Will Phillips and Tom Powell will build on solid first seasons of AFL football and No. 1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis is a rare talent who will play between mid and attack in his much-anticipated debut year.
The club’s best mid Ben Cunnington is hopeful of making a return after his battle with cancer and continues to be an inspiration to those around him.
Mid/forward Jaidyn Stephenson is fitter than he has been in his short time at the club and has a point to prove and some ground to make up, and others are also capable of stepping up.
The fact that Anderson hasn’t been a part of the mix throughout the pre-season is likely to count against him in terms of AFL selection in the early part of the season.
The clock is ticking on his future plans.
The Kangaroos will likely need an answer within the next fortnight if he will take the jab and play a role in their 2022 campaign, or if not, decide which of their young guns will take his spot through the midfield.
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