Conor McKenna and James Stewart must complete quarantine despite testing negative for COVID-19
AFL chief Gillion McLachlan admits the mystery behind Conor McKenna’s inconsistent COVID test results may never be solved but there’s no way out of quarantine for him and teammates James Stewart.
Essendon
Don't miss out on the headlines from Essendon. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Gillon McLachlan has shut down what he describes as “wild theories” surrounding Essendon player Conor McKenna who he says must serve his full 14-day isolation period.
The league chief said he expected McKenna – who last week tested positive for COVID-19 before swiftly testing negative – and teammate and “close contact” James Stewart would both serve their full government-mandated 14-day isolation period.
“To clear a few things up, and because (McKenna’s) swabs from the 19th and 20th which were the Friday and the Saturday were re-tested … he was positive on those days,” he said on 3AW.
“To say it can’t happen or it didn’t happen or he wasn’t … he was positive. And on that basis, he and James Stewart will go through a 14-day quarantine.
“He’s been negative twice since. The virology was very low, so it’s a very low rate. Very, very, very low levels.
“And then he’s had some serology for bloods done since, and he has antibodies. I know I’m probably giving a lot of detail there, but I think it’s important to straighten this up.”
McLachlan said when McKenna was infected remained a mystery, and may remain that way.
“There is chance that it was from some time ago, and there is some level of remnants in his system at very low levels,” he said.
“We’ll do further blood testing and bloodwork. But he definitely was positive and he’ll go through 14 days. His close contacts have been isolated and that’s what we know today.
“Whether it was from an illness in Ireland or other, that’s for the medical people to continue to work through, and maybe we won’t have certainty on it.”
Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Watch every match of every round Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
The league boss said that a meeting was set for this morning to discuss whether McKenna had breached any AFL rules.
“There’s wild theories and everything that are going around,” he said.
“I think it’s accepted that he went to some public real estate openings and to his host family. Both of those breaches are marginal. The theory that his behavior was risky … none of that is proven to be true.”
But he was adamant that when it came to quarantine, government authorities would reign.
AGENT WANTS STEWART FREED FROM QUARANTINE
James Stewart’s manager says his fight to release his client from quarantine through advanced science would be a test case for the AFL’s handling of coronavirus positives.
The Herald Sun revealed on Thursday Peter Jess has appointed senior counsel Tony Nolan, an experienced sports lawyer, to take up Stewart’s case.
Jess wants a mass spectrometer reading done on Stewart’s blood to categorically prove he does not have coronavirus antibodies, which he believes would allow his client back to training.
He has also called on the AFL and AFLPA to put in place a review process for players in Stewart’s situation given the likelihood of a similar scenario in coming months.
Essendon and Jess have cast significant doubt on whether Conor McKenna had coronavirus given the miniscule traces of the disease in his system and subsequent negative tests revealed on Thursday morning.
A blood test on McKenna would confirm definitively whether the Irishman had the virus by detecting COVID-19 antibodies.
Essendon has accepted the AFL’s ruling and will not join Jess in that fight given the league clearly needs the backing of Victorian health authorities to continue its competition.
McKenna will have to serve the full 14-day quarantine period and miss the Round 4 and 5 contests, while Jess would like Stewart available for selection again if he passed Saturday’s coronavirus test.
Jess revealed that Stewart had passed nine COVID-19 tests and was in the last year of a contract as he fought to extend his career.
“We want an independent and sophisticated analysis of the tests,” he said.
“I have appointed a senior counsel and we are putting this to the AFL and AFLPA that if someone is to have their livelihood wrenched from them we need to have the ability to ensure the decision is based on scientific and medical certainty and at this moment we don’t.
“We know it is medically and scientifically impossible for anyone to recover from coronavirus in 24 hours. This has to be based on science.
“James is not positive. He is negative. He doesn’t have the disease. There is a serious question about whether Conor has it so unless we can categorically prove he has it, then there is a lack of scientific rigor which is effectively putting the competition at risk.
“There are lots of people who test positive one day, they‘re at the very tail-end of their infection and then they test negative the following day. If you get two negative tests 24 hours apart, you as a case are clear.
Stewart battled groin issues for the whole of 2019 and while he is a strong marking forward with list cuts to come he needs to make every post a winner this year.
If he is not released from quarantine until Saturday week it would put his fitness back and potentially mean he is weeks from senior selection.
SPORTS MEDICOS QUESTION RESULTS
Top sports medico Dr Peter Larkins told the Herald Sun he couldn’t comprehend how McKenna could’ve contracted and cleared the virus across the weekend.
“You don’t just get it and get rid of it in a three-day period. I don’t know that anybody has documented that about this virus in the community,” Larkins said.
“It’s very hard to explain he was on the way out when he had three negatives in the 10-11 days before Friday’s irregular test.
“If it turns out (the) test was negative it’s a big dilemma because they’ve already made decisions on the basis he had the virus.”
Bombers coach John Worsfold doubted whether McKenna ever had the virus.
Larkins said the integrity of the testing procedure had to match WADA’s standard so players couldn’t challenge results.
“We have to make sure it‘s done properly, where the swab is done in both nostrils, at the back of the nasopharynx – not at the front – and done in the throat properly,” Larkins said.
“You’ve got to make sure you’re getting to where the virus hides, and that’s deep in the nose and deep in the throat.
“I’d be more concerned about a false negative than a false positive because the consequences of having a false negative test in someone who’s got the virus means other people are going to catch it.”
McKenna’s bewildering sequence of results has exposed the fallibilities of the testing, they declared, as the AFL conducts more than 2000 weekly tests in a bid to keep its season rolling.
Demons doctor Peter Brukner said the accuracy of testing was “significantly” less than 99.9 per cent — and between 90-99 per cent — with more irregularities to be expected.
McKenna’s results mysteriously went from negative, to a “low-level irregularity”, to positive and back to negative in six days.
Victoria’s chief health officer, Professor Brett Sutton, said McKenna’s situation was not uncommon, claiming the Irish speedster was “at the tail end of the infection” before he tested negative “24 hours later”.
Brukner said: “It’s not a simple matter of shoving something up your nose, there can be pockets of virus in the mucus lining of the nose and you may not get to it”.
Larkins said the tests cost $100 each, meaning the AFL is forking out more than $200,000 each week, and north of $4 million for the season.
The AFL has already completed more than 14,000 tests.
The league said McKenna’s two positive swabs taken on Friday and Saturday had been retested by the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, which confirmed the speedster had the virus.
Larkins said McKenna’s blood sample would also confirm that “because if he’s got antibodies of the corona he’s had the virus for sure”.
Larkins and Brukner agreed that McKenna, or any player, should be cleared to play if they produced two negatives in 48 hours and weren’t showing symptoms.
McKenna was negative on Monday and retested on Thursday. That result was due late last night.
Asked what would happen if Dustin Martin tested positive halfway through the finals series, Brukner said: “If it was a mild dose on Monday, and he was negative on the Wednesday and the Friday, then maybe he would play.”
But if Martin had the virus Larkins said: “You whack him away for 14 days minimum and finals are probably dead for him, but the biggest problem would be who he’s had exposure to”.
Larkins expected a controversial test in the first month, and it came after just one completed round.
“My concern now is if this turns out to be a false story that doesn’t mean the AFL’s out of trouble, because they’ve got to be really vigilant with all of the staff at every club in order for these games to go ahead,” he said.
“We’ve still got a real big challenge to get another seven or eight rounds of footy out.”
Larkins said hygiene could still be improved.
“I don’t want to see players spitting on their hands and rubbing it on the ball and handballing it,” he said.
“They’ve got to think about not spitting on their hands before a centre bounce, like a number of players did on the weekend – not just Conor McKenna at training.”
NEGATIVE RESULT WON’T HASTEN MCKENNA’S RETURN
Essendon defender Conor McKenna will still be forced into quarantine despite being sensationally cleared of having coronavirus — just two days after recording a positive test and sending the competition into turmoil.
Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton said McKenna would be classified as a confirmed positive case and be made to serve out a 14-day isolation period.
“It’s a positive test. It’s being treated as a confirmed positive. There are lots of people who test positive one day, they’re at the very tail-end of their infection and then they test negative the following day,” Dr Sutton said.
“If you get two negative tests 24 hours apart, you as a case are clear. But your close contacts, (from) when you are potentially infectious, they have to go through their 14-day quarantine period. That will apply to Conor McKenna’s contacts.”
McKenna’s latest negative result raises serious questions over the testing procedures being used by the AFL.
Essendon doctors were bewildered when the negative verdict lobbed at 5.30pm.
But Dr Sutton said McKenna’s situation was not uncommon but wasn’t asked to explain why the Irish speedster’s results mysteriously went from negative, to irregular, to positive and back to negative within the space of six days.
“There are lots of people who test positive one day at the tail end of the infection and test negative 24 hours later,” he said.
“Two negative tests give us the confidence that someone isn’t infectious. That’s the case here in all likelihood.”
A second Bomber, forward James Stewart, remains in isolation but will seek to be cleared to play on the weekend if his own test result comes back negative on Wednesday.
Stewart’s agent, Peter Jess, said: “I’m finding it difficult to accept that somehow Conor McKenna has been able to recover from coronavirus within 48 hours.
“This is something that has not been documented anywhere throughout the world.
“It must be a medical miracle.”
McKenna’s positive test result on Saturday morning forced the abandonment of Sunday’s Essendon-Melbourne clash at the MCG.
Bombers chief executive Xavier Campbell told the Herald Sun on Tuesday night: “We will continue to work with the medical experts to further understand what these results mean.”
But the AFL will wait until McKenna registers a second negative test before making a decision about whether he and Stewart are required to continue to quarantine.
Despite dodging a bullet in the McKenna situation, the league is facing a fixturing nightmare because of Victoria’s worsening COVID-19 outbreak.
Carlton said it was “satisfied” with the decision made by the Department of Health and Human Services to sideline just two Essendon players — McKenna and Stewart — for Saturday night’s MCG clash against the Bombers.
“With the increase in COVID-19 testing available to players and the subsequent risk to players being minimal, we are comfortable that every possible precaution has been made throughout this process to protect the safety of our people,” Blues president Mark LoGiudice said.
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said the Dogs had shuffled their squad into smaller training groups in a bid to avoid top players from the same positions of the ground collectively being ruled out by a positive test.
“Each week we reconsider who should be in which group and we’ve re-done them and we’ve probably been a little bit more conservative with regards to what’s happened there and we’ve got a pretty good blend,” Beveridge said.
“Because you’re not training so much and the contact is minimised, you’ve got to go through a process of risk assessment.”
PREVIOUS CONOR MCKENNA REPORTS:
AFL SCRAMBLES TO FIX FIXTURE
The AFL could be forced to release a solitary Round 6 schedule later this week as it scrambles to navigate strict interstate border restrictions.
Matches beyond Round 5 are yet to be locked in.
West Coast and Fremantle are expected to agree to spend an extra week in their Gold Coast hubs before a potential Round 7 Derby at Perth’s Optus Stadium in front of 60,000 fans.
The Eagles will likely meet lowly Adelaide at Metricon Stadium in Round 6, while Fremantle will host an interstate team on the Gold Coast.
The league is exploring options to send clubs from other states into Perth hubs if permission is granted by the Western Australian Government.
Eagles and Dockers players were given permission on Tuesday to quarantine at home, but it is unclear if visiting teams will also be permitted to train and play in WA before serving a full 14-day quarantine.
Tasmania and the Northern Territory could also stage matches in the back end of the season.
Crowds of up to 25,000 will be permitted at the Adelaide Oval from next week, but South Australia’s border will remain closed to interstate teams until at least the end of next month.
McKENNA’S WRESTLING PARTNER QUARANTINED
Earlier, the Bombers dodged a bullet with only one player other than McKenna – James Stewart – forced into a two-week quarantine, meaning the Bombers can go into Saturday night’s clash with Carlton at close to full strength.
In a massive win for the Bombers, Essendon players have been told Stewart was deemed the only player at risk as a close contact of McKenna and will be quarantined for 14 days following the Irishman’s positive COVID-19 test result from Saturday.
Stewart was McKenna’s wrestling partner in the club’s full training session on Friday.
The club conceded that constituted close contact, with Essendon’s players set to return to training on Wednesday.
There had been initial concerns up to eight teammates could have been sidelined after McKenna trained with the main group on Friday before attending the club briefly on Saturday morning, including the majority of the club’s backline.
But Department of Health and Human Services authorities pored over the vision of McKenna’s time at the club on Friday and deemed Stewart as the only player required to be stood down for the game against the Blues that will now go ahead.
Neither McKenna or Stewart played in the Bombers’ previous game against Sydney in Sydney when the Essendon team shared a plane with North Melbourne.
The entire Essendon playing list and football department staffers were tested for coronavirus again on Monday. They all tested negative.
That means the Bombers — who had initially feared they might lose the bulk of their defence — will go into Saturday night’s clash with the Blues with a team close to full-strength, minus skipper Dyson Heppell, who fractured his ankle last week.
It is a huge scheduling win for the AFL too as the Bombers had been pushing for a deferment of the Blues’ Round 4 clash if up to eight of its players were missing.
“This has clearly been a sensitive and delicate matter, and as a club, the health and wellbeing of our players and staff, particularly Conor and James, has been our number one priority throughout this period,” Essendon chief executive officer Xavier Campbell said.
“The public nature of our industry has made this task even more difficult but we are now pleased to have reached an outcome with the DHHS.
“The players will formally recommence training on Wednesday morning at the NEC Hangar in preparation for our round four game against Carlton on Saturday night.”
The Herald Sun understands the AFL has already ruled out playing Melbourne and Essendon’s Round 3 game midweek to ensure the game was quickly made up.
Melbourne played a Sunday afternoon intra-club game with four quarters, full contact and AFL umpires so would be disadvantaged by playing four days later.
That game will be made up after Round 6 in a way where both clubs would play three games in 10 or 11 days.
Essendon and Melbourne could play in separate fixtures on Thursday or Friday night of one round, then play each other the next Wednesday in a midweek encounter.
Then both teams could play on a Sunday or Monday night in the next round, squeezing in three games over two weekends.
The Herald Sun can also reveal that McKenna attended five open-house inspections last Wednesday.
The grey area around AFL players moving house has given McKenna wriggle room to argue that inspecting multiple rental properties was not a clear violation of league rules.
McKenna also spent time with his host family on Friday. Last Monday the AFL eased their restrictions to allow players to visit the homes of “immediate family members”.
While McKenna’s host family are not blood relatives they are considered an important part of the homesick Irishman’s Melbourne life.
It comes as McKenna’s family in Northern Ireland say he was healthy when he left to return to Australia.
McKenna’s brother and brother’s partner, who live with him, have tested negative.
Mr McKenna said the family was supporting him from Northern Ireland.
FORFEIT WOULD BE UNFAIR ON BOMBERS: GAWN
Max Gawn says Melbourne is prepared to play its postponed match against Essendon “at the drop of a hat”, insisting the Bombers deserved the chance to fight for the four premiership points later in the season rather than forfeit last Sunday’s match.
And he stressed the AFL’s decision to ban contact in full training sessions until at least July 20 was “bizarre” and would become “glorified kicking circuit.”
Gawn said he didn’t agree with some assessments that the Demons should have claimed the points after the match was called off following Conor McKenna’s positive coronavirus test.
But the Melbourne skipper said it was only fair that the match goes ahead at some stage, which would mean a minimal break for the clubs between other games.
“I don’t think the points stuff comes into it really,” Gawn said on RSN.
“I think that’s got to be fair and Essendon have got to play us at some point.
“We all know this AFL season is going to be quite weird and this isn’t going to be the only case of this so I’m looking forward to potentially playing a midweek game.
“I don’t see it as a disadvantage.
“I see it as an opportunity and something the AFL could do moving forward. I know our Anzac (Eve) night game (against Richmond) last year was on a four-day break and the majority of the boys got up and played to a high level in both games.”
Gawn said he and the Melbourne players would “play at the drop of a hat to make sure the season continued.”
He said the AFL changes to player protocols announced on Monday – which included non-contact for full training groups and the winding back of player visitation rights leading into games – made it difficult for players preparing for matches.
“All 18 clubs are in the same boat … main training will just be a glorified kicking circuit now,” he said.
“When it comes to the actual contact, we’ve got to make sure we get something out of that (in groups of 8).”
He said the Demons were shattered not to play on the weekend, but made the most of a rare training session on the MCG on Sunday afternoon.
HOW HEALTH AUTHORITIES TRACKED AT-RISK BOMBERS
Conor McKenna was joined by seven backline group members in a short meeting on Saturday morning and in a weights session on Friday after full contact training.
Essendon has handed its video footage of training to the Department of Health and Human Services as well as a log of all meetings and sessions in the 72 hours before McKenna’s positive test.
But the Herald Sun understands in that submission it made clear the group of defenders practised strict social distancing in meetings as well as the weights session.
Under COVID protocols Essendon’s defenders were spaced out in that weights session in a 700 square metre facility, did not spot for each other and wiped down equipment after use.
Essendon has stated to DHHS authorities that social distancing was carried out rigorously by its defensive group, including in the Saturday morning meeting when he was most contagious.
It means there remains a chance that players including Cale Hooker, Adam Saad, Michael Hurley and Mason Redman could be available.
The club has more concerns with the full contract training session on Friday and whether the DHHS will rule players were in close contact with McKenna.
He made contact with players both in tackling and in passing a ball to them, but it remains to be seen how the DHHS tallies up the time they spent together and how it classifies that “close contact”.
Players including Zach Merrett and Jake Stringer were in close proximity to McKenna but it is impossible to say which players would be judged to be in close contact.
The results from Monday afternoon’s COVID-19 tests will be returned on Tuesday and give DHHS officials more information about whether to quarantine players.
But the hope is that even if players are forced to quarantine it will not affect an entire line group like the backline.
BOMBERS COULD LOBBY AFL TO POSTPONE BLUES CLASH
Essendon chief executive Xavier Campbell says the club might ask the AFL to postpone Saturday’s game against Carlton if the entire backline was ravaged.
The Herald Sun revealed on Sunday the entire backline was involved in sessions with COVID-positive teammate Conor McKenna on Friday.
And while the AFL has said if Essendon has 26 available players the match could be played, Campbell suggested the Dons would lobby for an alternative solution if many players were quarantined.
“We would expect common sense when the league works through this,” he said.
“They have done a tremendous job and created flexibility in the season where we could stretch it out and where we could have breaks, we may have to have breaks based on existing state border closures anyway so I would like to think we would sit down with the AFL and others and we could work through it so there would be a reasonable outcome.
“It is still too early to tell, it may be there is a minimum amount of close contact and it’s a limited impact in the short term that means the season progresses.
“I would love for that to happen because this game is very important in the context of where we are right now. But you would like to think we sit down and look at it with an element of common sense and fairness.”
AFL TICKS OFF ESSENDON HANDLING OF MCKENNA TESTING
Earlier on Monday, the AFL ticked off Essendon’s handling of McKenna’s positive COVID-19 test despite him attending a meeting with the club’s defenders while waiting for a “pending” test on Saturday morning.
Essendon has handed its video footage of training to the Department of Health and Human Services as well as a log of all meetings and sessions in the 72 hours before McKenna’s positive test on Saturday afternoon.
It will now await judgment on how many players will be quarantined, with the club’s eight best defenders all having been in contact with him at least four times in the 24 hours before he tested positive.
Essendon coaches and officials could also be forced to quarantine along with players.
The fact McKenna was more contagious on Saturday than in previous days means his interaction with players on Saturday will be even more closely scrutinised.
When McKenna was the only player or official not to get a negative result from Friday’s COVID tests the club called him on his way into the club and asked if he had been tested.
He said he had been and while the club contacted Dorovich pathology he was involved in a short meeting outside with Essendon’s defenders.
AFL legal counsel Andrew Dillon said he had no issue with Essendon’s handling of the case despite him entering the club on Saturday without a negative test.
“I think what happened was when he turned up for training, they were doing stuff on Saturday morning and as they were checking players off it was noted they hadn’t had the response back,” Dillon told Triple M radio on Monday.
“So while they were waiting for tests to come back – and sometimes it might just be an oversight that the test hasn’t come through with the other ones – when they followed that up they got feedback it was an irregularity and from that time he was then tested and it was from there the positive test came back.”
Dillon said the club had submitted its log of records and DHHS would make a decision after reviewing footage and deciding who had been in “close contact”.
“Essendon have worked closely with the DHHS and what that work has done is to look at everything that has happened in the 72 hours before that and they have kept meticulous records of what players have done when they are there, who they have interacted with so that has been forwarded through to the department late last night,” he said.
“They will identify who are the players and staff members who would be defined as a close contact and those players and staff would potentially have to go into a form of isolation. It is close contact for more than 15 minutes (face-to-face) or sharing a closed space for more than two hours.”
WHERE TO NOW FOR THE BOMBERS?
The undefeated Bombers will this week likely pull together a makeshift backline for the clash against Carlton if, as expected, multiple stars who came in close contact with McKenna are required to isolate from the club for 14 days.
It threatens to deplete the Bombers’ side the week after they lost Dyson Heppell to a months-long ankle injury, although senior defender Patrick Ambrose could fill a key void after recovering from a knee injury.
Campbell was adamant the situation would not bring the Bombers to their knees in 2020.
“You are not comfortable losing any (players). It’s going to be challenging,” Campbell said.
“If, in the worst-case scenario, there was significant chunk of players were deemed to be close contact and we weren’t able to field a team, there is enough flexibility in the fixturing and the way the season is going to be delivered to allow us to live through that.
“But that we do know is it is not going to derail our season.
“That’s where we are determined to ensure sure that isn’t happening. It is not ideal, we know that, but the preparation and lead-in to this season hasn’t been ideal.
“It’s been anything but fair in the way it has been structured, there’s hubs and not hubs for other teams.”
HOW IT PLAYED OUT FOR CONOR MCKENNA
The Bombers have rallied around McKenna as he faces potential sanctions for breaking the AFL’s return to play restrictions by attending an open house inspection.
“Conor’s (result) said ‘pending’. It didn’t say it was negative, it didn’t say it was positive,” Campbell said on Triple M.
“He was en route to the footy cub (on Saturday morning) at the time, and he advised that he had (undergone the test the day before).
“The club doctor then made contact with Dorevitch (Pathology), who advised that they would need to explore that (result) and come back to the club.
“In the meantime Conor arrived at the footy club and he was told he would not be able to train with the group until such time we got confirmation of a negative test.
“He would have to obviously practice strict social distancing, he was temperature tested for symptoms and all that sort of thing, as per the protocol.
“And about 15 minutes later the result came back there was a low-level irregularity, so it still wasn’t conclusive.
“Then he got sent straight away to Dorevitch for further testing, got asked to isolate and it wasn’t until early afternoon (on Saturday) that we were advised the test was in fact positive.”
CAN A STEPHEN SILVAGNI CLONE SAVE THE BOMBERS?
Essendon is set to turn to a Stephen Silvagni-like defender fresh from serving his own COVID-19-related suspension to help stop Carlton – if Saturday night’s match goes ahead.
Brandon Zerk-Thatcher was banned from Round 2 after self-reporting a minor protocol breach but is in line for the assignment on Blues spearhead Harry McKay at the MCG.
“Geez he moves a lot like SOS (Silvagni),” Bombers list manager Adrian Dodoro said recently.
“His mannerisms with the reach, the spoil, the body shape – long torso – and the courage.”
The 195cm West Australian was a standout in pre-season and was on the edge of selection before Conor McKenna’s positive COVID-19 test sparked fears Essendon’s entire backline could be quarantined.
The Herald Sun understands Zerk-Thatcher was not in McKenna’s training group, which included Adam Saad, Cale Hooker, Michael Hurley, Mason Redman, Marty Gleeson, Matt Guelfi and Jordan Ridley.
MORE NEWS:
AFL cracks down on player movements, training rules in bid to avoid devastating COVID-19 outbreak
Should Zerk-Thatcher, 21, be cleared to play by health authorities he would be the first in line to bolster the back half.
The Bombers delisted defender Michael Hartley last year partly to help provide opportunities for Zerk-Thatcher to blossom in 2020.
The No. 66 draft pick from 2017 ranked No. 1 in the VFL for intercept possessions from 2018-19 and No. 4 for intercept marks last year as he tidied up his kicking.
Zerk-Thatcher’s two AFL games so far have both come against Fremantle.
The Bombers could also recast midfielder Andrew McGrath into a defensive role on Eddie Betts.
McGrath won the 2017 Rising Star playing in the backline and kept Betts (six disposals) goalless in Round 21 that season.