Lions and Suns face long stint in south

THE Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns could be forced into a Sydney mini-hub as the Queensland Government introduces hard-line quarantine restrictions in the fight against COVID-19.

With coronavirus cases having spiked in Victoria, any Queensland teams playing in Melbourne will be required to quarantine on their return home for 14 days.

The Lions are scheduled to play Collingwood at the MCG on Friday week.

Instead of returning to Brisbane after the match and having to spend two weeks in isolation, there is speculation the Lions may now fly to NSW to serve their quarantine period and play the Sydney Swans and GWS Giants in successive weeks.

The Suns are scheduled to fly to Victoria this week to meet Geelong on Saturday night. They are also due to play in Melbourne the following weekend against Hawthorn.

If that match goes ahead, which at this stage is no certainty, the Suns may also then head to Sydney to serve their two-week quarantine period and play games against the Swans and Giants.

“The Suns might not go back to Queensland,” AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said.

“They might go other routes. That clearly will be adhered to and it’s word of advice over the coming days about how they traverse back to Queensland, whether they did go back into quarantine or whether they went a different way.”

Suns football operations general manager Jon Haines said his in-form club was “happy to go anywhere to play footy and help the competition continue on”.

“We’re open to going anywhere in the country to play footy, and we’re also open to having teams up here if there’s another hub in the future on the Gold Coast,” Haines said.

Meanwhile, the Lions are sweating on the fitness of captain Dayne Zorko after he injured his calf in his side’s 37point weekend home win over Adelaide.

Zorko is certain to at least miss Brisbane’s clash with Port Adelaide on Saturday.