Centrals in no man’s land

WERRIBEE Centrals is set to make a plea to the Geelong & District Football League for help as it tries to have a training ban lifted at its home base.

As AFL Barwon clubs return to training in restricted groups of 10, the Centurions are unable to use the facilities at Galvin Park due to COVID-19 protocols imposed by Wyndham City Council remain in place.

While senior coach Nick Smith expressed his reluctance to hit the training track under such strict protocols without confirmation from AFL Victoria on a return to play, the former premiership player said his club was unable to resume pre-season regardless.

“My preference is not to go back to train if we can’t play, but the bottom line is we don’t have access to our facility,” Smith said.

“So where do we train? Where do we train with 40 guys at six o’clock in the dark with no lights?

“We don't know when it will be relaxed and we’re seeking clarity from council now. My position would be, once council clears us, we’ll go back and do some modified training under the AFL protocols, but until then we can’t.

“Until then, we’ll just look at opportunities for informal gatherings of groups of 10 players.”

Smith said the club faced a logistic nightmare to train outside the Wyndham boundaries if council failed to relax its closure of recreational facilities.

The Centurions’ continued inability to train would obviously put them at a disadvantage should the GDFL season start.

“We talked about that and we considered training in Lara or Little River. But think of the logistics of trying to get the entire list to those venues,” Smith said.

“That’s why we have two strategies: one is to pressure Wyndham council to allow us to use our facilities to train as Geelong is, and if Wyndham won’t bend, we have to stop the

GDFL from allowing everyone else to start training.

“It’s exactly what happened with Adelaide in the AFL.”

Smith said the club was set to approach GDFL president Neville Whitley for support.

“We weren’t worried about it because there was no returnto-training date, but now that we can train we went to our local council to get approval and they said ‘ no lights, no oval, no facilities’,” he said.

“I got an email as of this morning saying they were still making a decision on it.”

Smith is also fearful that his club could lose a host of players if neighbouring leagues get the green light to play while the GDFL is in limbo.

“We’re really concerned that if the GDFL doesn’t go ahead, and the Western Region (Football League) does, we could get pillaged.

“All contracts are null and void because of the changes to the salary cap, and they’re thinking of opening a little transfer window so we would need to somehow hold our players.”