Port veteran warns some stars would boycott enforced hubs

Port Adelaide veteran Tom Rockliff has warned some players could stand down from football this season if the hub plan goes ahead.

Port Adelaide veteran Tom Rockliff, right, says some players would not want to be in a hub for 20 weeks Picture: Getty Images

Port Adelaide veteran Tom Rockliff has warned some players could stand down from football this season if the AFL pushes ahead with its controversial 20-week quarantine hub plan.

And South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said he was not convinced by the hub model and would need more information.

Rockliff told The Australian: “I think there will be players that won’t go into those hubs.

“I’d like to think I’d play but, for numerous reasons, players won’t feel comfortable going into that environment, whether it be a lack of family support or having dependants, including parents, rely on them.”

It has emerged South Australia is in danger of not hosting any more AFL games this year. In a key, worst-case scenario put to the players in a survey by the AFL Players Association on Tuesday night, there would be two hub phases across the remainder of the season.

The first would be an eight-week hub split into three weeks of training and five weeks of playing seven rounds. This is understood to involve the eight non-Victorian teams being placed in southeast Queensland or Western Australia and the 10 Victorian sides in Melbourne.

Under the plan, players would then be allowed one week home with families before all clubs were moved to Victoria for 12 weeks to complete the remaining nine rounds and finals.

It is believed clubs would be asked to take 32 players, plus coaches and officials, into the hubs. The AFL is set to publicly confirm its plan to complete the season on May 11, with an expected start date in June.

Marshall told The Australian he was seeking high level health advice over whether a “risk profile” of hub model was any better than a modified home and away season.

“I am sceptical of the hub model and I have asked the AHPPC (Australian Health Protection Principal Committee) to provide some advice on it,” said Marshall.

Emerging Crow Tom Doedee echoed Rockliff’s comments, saying some players might not make themselves available to play if they were asked to spend 20 weeks in quarantine hubs.

“While it would be ideal to have our whole team there, there’s a chance that might not happen,’’ he said.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley queried whether having players and staff in hubs for an extended period was the right thing to do and said he would understand if any opted out.

“There would be players in our organisation — and staff — that would not make the decision to come and I would not look dimly on that at all,” Buckley told SEN.

“Being away is the easy part of the equation, it’s the people at home that are left to fend for themselves that (get) the short end of the stick.

“You’re not going to get 100 per cent buy-in with this.”

“It’s definitely not something you would choose and it may well get to the stage where the leadership of the game needs to work out whether getting a season away in 2020 or asking our people to expose themselves to what has been presented as a worst-case scenario is actually worth it, or which one is going to cost us more.

“The numbers are easy to work out. You can measure a profit and loss quite easily. The emotional and mental toll and cost is a lot harder to settle on.”

The Advertiser, AAP