It will be shortly announced that the Dees have decided to take all their fit players to the Hub so they can train as a full squad.  The harsh lock-down measures in Victoria was making it too hard for the players left behind to train.

Edited July 13, 20205 yr by goodwindees
spelling mistake

Good decision.

Will NSW border stipulations apply? Or are there special provisions for the AFL?

Perhaps the exemption given to get the A League sides out of Victoria after our lockdown kicked in has also helped get this done. If we're also playing practice games against other sides currently in NSW it makes sense. 

They'll apply for an exemption and then need to spend 14 days in quarantine/away from rest of squad.

Guess the club aren't expecting to be back anytime soon. 

Should have been the original decision.

Games will be outside Victoria for the next 8 weeks minimum.

Hearing that we might be regularly playing 3 games in each 2 week cycle

This is gearing up for 4-5 day back ups, you are going to need to manage players.  We really need to bring in a second ruck that can play 40% of time to give Max a spell or we will break him

I believe they will be flown to Qld to quarantine for 14 days so that the team will either fly up to Qld to meet them OR they can then be flown to NSW to be with the team without having to quarantine again.

 

Yes. Agree. Not sure why the players were left behind. AFL are paying for accomodation costs and transfers and majority of living arrangements. Need to keep the team together. 

On 7/13/2020 at 11:32 AM, goodwindees said:

I believe they will be flown to Qld to quarantine for 14 days so that the team will either fly up to Qld to meet them OR they can then be flown to NSW to be with the team without having to quarantine again.

 

I think one of the shows last night said all the teams players in Melbourne currently, that are coming up will be quarantining at the same hotel in qld.

On 7/13/2020 at 10:55 AM, goodwindees said:

It will be shortly announced that the Dees have decided to take all their fit players to the Hub so they can train as a full squad.  The harsh lock-down measures in Victoria was making it too hard for the players left behind to train.

 

2 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Yes. Agree. Not sure why the players were left behind. AFL are paying for accomodation costs and transfers and majority of living arrangements. Need to keep the team together. 

Mahoney said they had sought feedback from clubs already in hubs, and there were arguments for and against full squad vs reduced.

With full, whilst it was good to have them all together for training/match simulation...etc, it was logistically harder to move the extra players/support staff/families around.

It had also been observed by some clubs with full squads that the players who are not likely to get a game were tending to treat the trip as a bit of a vacation and creating a distraction for those in the best 22 or the fringe of it.

Whereas with reduced, it was opposite. Easier to shift everyone around, greater focus on best 22.. etc, but then the obvious downsides to splitting up the group. Last weekend for example, to make up numbers our non-playing guys in the hub had a joint training session with Sydney. 

Suppose they also looked at the performance of teams in hubs with reduced squad (Port) vs full squad (West Coast).