Tom Liberatore says moving into a hub will be hard on his partner but he’ll do what’s necessary
Bulldogs star Tom Liberatore says it will be very hard on his partner if he needs to go into a hub to restart the season but will do what’s necessary. Meanwhile, his coach has moved to dispel player fears over the hubs concept.
Richmond
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Western Bulldogs premiership star Tom Liberatore says moving into a quarantine hub would be incredibly hard on his partner — but he’ll do whatever is in the best long-term interests of the game.
Liberatore, 27, welcomed son Oscar into the world in February and also helps raise his partner’s four-year-old daughter at their home in Kingsville.
“It’ll be hard, it’ll definitely be hard,” Liberatore said this week.
“Mostly on my partner, really. As players we’ll adjust accordingly with what’s thrown at us, but the main thing is making sure my partner and kids are OK.
“It’ll cause a bit of short-term stress. But if it’s better for the game in the long run then we’ll do what’s necessary, I think.”
Teammate Mitch Wallis’s wife, Emily, is due to give birth next month while Jason Johannisen’s partner gave birth to their daughter, Lola, in November.
Liberatore was one of the 500 players on last week’s Zoom phone conference, where AFL Players’ Association boss Paul Marsh outlined the worst-case scenario.
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That would see players live in hubs for 20 out of 21 weeks, should their team reach this year’s Grand Final.
“I had it on, just listening. It would obviously be pretty hard to do that. I think it’s going to be hard on all players,” Liberatore said.
“Even if you don’t have a family, everyone’s got their personal lives to deal with.”
Liberatore was grateful that isolation had afforded him more time with his newborn. He has spent his spare time cooking — homemade tomato soup is his speciality — playing chess and writing.
His father Tony Liberatore revealed that former Dogs coach Brendan McCartney once asked Tom to take on his old No.39 guernsey.
“But I didn’t want him to wear my number, you make your own identity as a player,” Tony said.
“He told me that Brendan McCartney actually said to him we want you guys to wear your dad’s number, what do you think?
“I said, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no — please don’t’. Whether it’s Oscar or whoever’s kid it is in the third generation it should be the same again, you create your own identity.”
BEVERIDGE DISPELS PLAYER FEARS OVER HUBS
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge moved to dispel the fears of his players after a radical 20-week quarantine hub scenario was presented to the players this week.
AFLPA president Patrick Dangerfield said the worst-case scenario was the solitary option given by the AFL to the players in a phone hook-up on Tuesday.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has since cleared the air with club captains by video conference, and labelled the episode as a “glitch” on Saturday.
Beveridge said he also made contact with his playing group to ease their minds following the phone hook up that concerned a number of players.
“Obviously they talked about the most extreme version of events that may happen, which is probably about a one per cent chance of happening,” Beveridge said.
“(I wanted) to let them know what is likely to happen is a hell of a lot different to that.
“And if there are different circumstances, where we need to understand and support our players that can’t be involved.
“If there are hubs then fine, we’ll just make sure that we look after them and take care of them.”
Beveridge said he would support any player that did want to go into a hub, but stressed a different model was favoured.
“If we go to something like that, the reality is … we need to adjust. The ‘wanky’ corporate term is ‘be agile’,” Beveridge told Fox Footy Live.
“If we don’t all accept the fact that there’s going to be discomfort, we won’t have a code at this level and won’t be able to compete in a national sense, so all of us are prepared.
“If you surveyed the playing group across the land, you’ll get a cross-section of some young families and players with partners who aren’t far away from having new children.
“Mitchy Wallis, (his partner) Emily is only around seven weeks away from giving birth, so there’s one example of a player who will definitely have to weigh up his options and we’ll totally support it.
“I would expect that Mitch couldn’t go into a hub. If I was Mitch, I wouldn’t either – and we’ll support him on that if that’s the case.
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NO HARD FEELINGS IF TIGERS SIT OUT
By Liam Twomey
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick says there will be no hard feelings towards any Tiger who does not enter a football hub when the AFL season resumes.
However, he insists that as a club, the defending champions are “dying” to get back to competing for premiership points and will play “anywhere, anytime”.
AFL players were this week briefed on the inner workings of how the hubs format could look.
While some individual players with young families have expressed concerns about having to leave them behind, Hardwick said the Richmond Football Club as a whole was “all in.”
“We’ve got a great playing group, we are here for our supporters, we are here for our stakeholders, we are dying to play, we are dying to get back,” Hardwick told the club website.
“What we will then though look at is each individual case for our players. We will not force a player to play if they’ve got a reason that they don’t want to play.
“There will be no hard feelings from our point of view. We have a great playing list that is capable of maintaining a good win-loss record along the way.
“The club is in but once again from an individual point of view, we will respect and support each individual choice when it comes to hubs.
“First and foremost we are looking to play anywhere at anytime. We can’t wait.”
Hardwick’s first preference is to avoid hubs altogether and for the AFL season to resume and the remaining 16 matches to be played as initially played.
However, he admitted that despite the coronavirus curve being flattened, that was an unlikely outcome.
“We just need to continue to understand that the job’s not done yet and as soon as we get that done, sport and the borders will open up so we will be able to play,” he said.
“That (original fixture) is my ideal preference. Is it going to happen that way? Well, probably not at this stage.
“But once again we will cross that bridge when we come to it.”
It was revealed this week that under the most extreme option, this year’s two Grand Final sides could be quarantined in hubs for 20 out of 21 weeks.
However, Hardwick believes that is an unlikely outcome.
The Tigers have played in two of the last three Grand Finals.
“I think that is a very low probability at this stage, especially with the great job the community is doing with flattening the curve and continuing the trend that we are at the moment.”
The shape of the 2020 season will become clearer after May 11 when Victoria is expected to loosen some social distancing rules following a key meeting of the national cabinet.
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