Virus is tamed in win for Tigers

RICHMOND’S football program has survived an early test case after its AFLW pre-season was hit by the first AFL Covid-19 positive in 16 months.

A Richmond player tested positive on Saturday in a development that forced the club’s women’s team into quarantine. The player, who had received her first vaccine shot as an authorised worker, trained with her teammates on Thursday at Punt Road.

On Saturday she returned a positive rapid antigen test at Punt Road and was sent for further testing, which confirmed she had the virus.

The training session was cancelled and her teammates were sent home and will have to quarantine for at least a week, with the club and the AFL awaiting a Department of Health and Human Services ruling.

The player is expected to be in quarantine for 14 days.

AFLW started pre-season last week in preparation for a January 6 start to the season.

But the AFL and the Tigers believe the new rapid antigen tests have already served a crucial purpose.

Richmond’s AFL stars including Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin are regularly at the club doing weights and running but are strictly kept apart from the women’s program, with set times for the AFL and AFLW teams to train.

Facilities are also cleaned in between sessions, with the demarcation reducing the risks of an entire club being forced to quarantine because of a single Covid-19 positive.

The AFL’S first Covid positive was Essendon’s Conor Mckenna in June last year, but it is expected that such examples will become more common given lockdown is about to end in Victoria.

While the AFL hopes to have packed crowds and teams flying across Australia next year, the league’s own Covid-19 policy will have specific guidelines around positive tests.

Arizona Cardinals NFL coach Kliff Kingsbury tested positive to Covid and missed Sunday’s game but needs only two negative tests 24 hours apart to return to the club if he remains symptom free.

The AFL is set to outline its own provisions in coming days for when players and staff invariably test positive.

The Victorian government is in the process of clarifying new measures for quarantine.

Under old restrictions players would need to be locked at home for the 14 days, compromising their pre-season.

But Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has flagged new rules that would see fully vaccinated people only quarantining for seven days as long as they are not a household contact of someone who tests positive to Covid.

Under a best-case scenario Richmond’s players could return to training after a week, with their exposure backdated to the Thursday session,

The club said in a statement it was working with the AFL and Victorian Department of Health to “determine when the program can resume”.

“In line with current government advice, all program members who attended the club at the prior training session on Thursday, October 14, have remained isolated,” the club said. A Richmond staffer returned a borderline rapid antigen test but subsequent testing cleared them.