Buckley has hub concern

Thoughts with families

COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley has cast doubt on whether the AFL should proceed with a season in quarantine hubs due to the significant toll it could have on players’ family and their welfare.

Players may be forced to live away from their families for up to 20 weeks of the dramatically reshaped season to protect the game’s stars from the coronavirus.

But Buckley said the cost of that extraordinary plan may outweigh the benefit of restarting the season.

He said the game’s top officials needed to consider whether “a worst-case scenario is actually worth it”.

“It would be incredibly difficult, and I don’t know if it is the right thing to ask people, to be honest,” Buckley said on SEN.

“It’s not something we would have ever thought that we would be confronted with.”

Buckley said he was aware there were a number of scenarios the league was working through, including gaining travel exemptions to allow teams to fly interstate for games on a weekly basis.

“I know that the AFL are speaking with governments to see what it can do to find an outcome that allows some safe travel,” he said. “Once you’ve exhausted all of your other options, I understand the hub is pretty much your only choice in being able to get a season away.

“I think that the time that has been discussed is over the top. If you look at the first part of what was presented which was seven games in five weeks, if you can get seven games away in five weeks and you did that a couple of times, that sounds a whole lot less than 20 weeks.

“The parameters of what the hubs would look like, whether families would be involved or not, players will or should have the choice to opt out, as would staff.”

Buckley said he understood if any player or staff member did not want to be part of a quarantine hub, if it meant being away from their family in a stressful time.

FREMANTLE AFL star Luke Ryan is one of three Dockers under investigation over a possible breach of coronavirus restrictions after allegedly attending a house party last weekend.

Senior Dockers defender Ryan and young teammates Michael Frederick and Jason Carter have been seen in a social media video that sparked the investigation. Seven people are seen in the video.