Police commissioner, chief public health officer tell AFL that SA will not exempt footy teams from border quarantine rules
The state’s top health official says the Crows and Power will need to abide by strict quarantine rules until SA’s borders with the rest of the country are reopened. READ HER LETTER TO THE AFL
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The state’s chief public health officer says the Crows and Power will have to be based interstate to get the AFL season underway until South Australia relaxes border restrictions.
The two AFL clubs are investigating where they would relocate to after the AFL’s request for them to be granted special COVID-19 quarantine exemptions was rejected on Wednesday night, which threatens to delay an announcement date for the start of the AFL season.
SA chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier revealed more of the reasoning behind the decision that shocked the league and the clubs.
In a letter signed by herself and Commissioner of SA Police Grant Stevens, Dr Spurrier told the AFL the proposal to fly out Crows and Port players for matches interstate and back into the state under modified quarantine requirements posed “an unnecessary public health risk”.
Dr Spurrier said the amount of COVID-19 cases SA had received from eastern states played a big part in the decision.
“We agonised over this… we looked at every which way how we would be able to not require a large group, not just the players but the other people you would need with a football team, and we really felt that it was not possible to do it safely in South Australia without having that two-week quarantine,” she said on radio FIVEaa.
“We just felt like it was an unacceptable risk.”
The Crows and Power are set to follow West Coast and Fremantle in setting up base in an eastern state to resume the season.
Dr Spurrier said they would have to stay there until SA border restrictions and quarantine requirements were lifted.
“It is really going to be when we relax the restrictions (when the Crows and Power can return),” she said.
“But honestly four or five weeks ago I wouldn’t have predicted we would do so well in South Australia … so let’s see how we go in the eastern states.”
As well as rejecting the modified quarantine requirements, the letter also revealed SA would not be allowing contact training in groups for the two AFL clubs until June 8.
Crows board member Mark Ricciuto said this meant time was of the essence for the club to decide on where they would be based so they could get there for the required pre-season training in a group in contact.
“But as of this morning, I think the Adelaide Football Club will be preparing to play in hubs outside of Adelaide for pre-the games starting and maybe up to the first five weeks of the footy season so they can get some certainty in the program for the AFL, because the fixture’s a bloody hard thing to get sorted at the best of times,” he said on Triple M.
Port Adelaide chairman David Koch said he was shocked by the rejection, and said the Power would most likely be based in Queensland.
“We put a proposal to them (government), which basically almost quarantined our players but allowed them to fly in and out – but (it was) not accepted and absolutely accept the chief medical officer’s decision … because that’s a community decision, we’re part of the community, we represent South Australia,” he said.
“It will put us at a severe disadvantage to the big Melbourne clubs and other interstate clubs, along with the Western Australian clubs, but that will make victory even sweeter, to get over those hurdles, because we still need to represent South Australia in the AFL. What’s the option?”
On Wednesday, South Australia’s two AFL clubs that had been confident they would get the green light from the State Government and SA Health for a fly-out, fly-in model, only for their plans to be thrown into chaos.
“On public health advice the committee has resolved that any economic and social benefits to be gained by allowing modifications or exemptions to SA quarantine requirements for AFL players and staff were not outweighed by the public health risk,” the letter states.
The two clubs are yet to officially respond to the letter.
“As you may be aware South Australia imposes strict quarantine requirements on interstate arrivals,” the letter reads. It says a committee, including Dr Spurrier and Commissioner Stevens, had considered an alternative protocol that would have allowed players to return but not stay in self isolation for 14 days, enabling them to again travel interstate for games.
“The protocol was considered against the strict quarantine requirements and whether any modification or exemption to these quarantine arrangements could adequately manage the public health risk,” it states.
“This means that on entering South Australia AFL players and staff would be required to quarantine for 14 days without leaving the property at which they are quarantining.
“Other people that normally reside at the property may leave.
“We acknowledge that for the AFL to recommence fixtures on his preferred time frame this may require players and staff to travel to an alternate location for the medium-term (hub model).
“We note these players and staff are required to follow South Australia requirements on the return to the state which may still include quarantine if applicable at the time.
“Players and staff will otherwise be bound by the client to the state in which the Hub is held while they are there.”
The letter also reads that the restrictions on training for sport in South Australia should apply equally to the AFL.
“In South Australia at step one until 8 June, allows non-contact training groups of up to 10,” it says.
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It says the AFL must “model the behaviours expected from the public in general”.
“The risk of complacency within the wider community rises if it is that these measures have diminished in importance,” it says.
Premier Steven Marshall said he “backed the health advice”.
However, earlier in the day he told The Advertiser he would rely on health advice when forming his opinion about the best way forward for AFL.
Earlier, he said the issues his government was working through were a lot more complex than other states.
“In some way it is much easier in other states because they don’t have border restrictions in New South Wales and Victoria and because in Western Australia they have just said they are not going to participate so their players will need to leave,” he said.
Originally published as Police commissioner, chief public health officer tell AFL that SA will not exempt footy teams from border quarantine rules
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