No argument on decision to cancel game against Cats

ADELAIDE, Geelong and the AFL quickly cancelled tomorrow’s clash at Adelaide Oval with Crows chief executive Andrew Fagan noting there was no other decision to make nor consider.

“Everyone was on the same page – and quickly,” Fagan said of the unprecedented decision, after Crows coach Phil Walsh’s death, to cancel a national league AFL game.

“Such was the significance of this ( Walsh’s death) that it would have been unfair, inappropriate to proceed,” Fagan.

That view was immediately shared by AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and the Geelong Football Club, where Walsh had started his post- football ca- reer as a fitness coach and runner with the Cats in the 1990s.

McLachlan says the decision to not play at the Oval tomorrow is a mark of respect to Walsh.

“While playing footy can be part of the grieving process, we are strongly of the view that is it not fair to ask the young men at the Crows or Geelong to play in these circumstances,” McLachlan said. Fagan emphasised the Crows players also did not want to play tomorrow. The four premiership points will be split between the Crows and Geelong.

“It would have been unfair to play, not just for our football club. It would have been unfair to Geelong as well,” Fagan said. “That view was shared by the playing group – and communicated to the AFL.

“It was not a difficult process to reach that decision. Everyone was very agreeable immediately.”

All other games in Round 14 – will continue.

Adelaide will resume its football campaign next Saturday in Perth against West Coast where Walsh worked for five seasons from 2008 as a midfield coach and strategist before returning to SA to have a second stint as an assistant coach at Port Adelaide.