REST ASSURED
‘Negligent’ ASADA cops a jab
LAUREN WOOD
PROJECTING “digital” images of fans on to stadium seating is one option being explored by broadcasters ahead of footy’s reboot, AFL chief Gillon McLachlan has revealed.
With the idea of cardboard cutouts of supporters to sit behind the goals being explored by a number of clubs, and artificial crowd noise to be played on match broadcasts, McLachlan said every avenue would be explored as football prepared to return for Round 2 next Thursday night.
“The digital option is certainly something that people are working on,” he said on ABC Radio yesterday.
“(Broadcasters) are looking at lots of things.
“Clearly they’re trying to engage with our members and our supporters and trying to
BROTHERS Callum and Brendon Ah Chee usually live 3600km apart but the Gold Coast hub put in place for the resumption of the 2020 AFL season means they will be just an hour away from each other.
Callum will be based in Brisbane with the Lions, and Brendon with the West Coast Eagles at a Gold Coast resort.
However, the strict COVID-19 measures mean the only time they will be able to have a face-to-face family reunion is when the Lions host the Eagles at the Gabba on June 20.
“It will be a bit strange. I don’t think I can go and see him and he is here for about a month or so ... hopefully we get the opportunity to play against each other and I get to see him at some stage,’’ Callum said.
“Obviously it (the Gold Coast hub) is something he’d rather not do, but everyone wants to see footy back, everyone wants to play. The weather is amazing. They are pretty lucky to be coming over here.’’
Having missed Brisbane’s Round 1 loss to Hawthorn due to illness, silky halfback Callum is yet to play a senior game in Lions colours after being traded from the Suns at the end of last year.
“It was just bad timing,” he said. “I got through the pre-season well and didn’t get injured, which was awesome, and then come Round 1, I was a bit crook.
“Obviously with the coronavirus it was a bit unknown, so it was pretty important to stay at home.
“It was just a bit of a cold. Unlucky to miss out but I’m fit and ready to go now.”
Brisbane host Fremantle, and the Eagles will take on Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium next Saturday.
Greg Davis give the game the best atmosphere, and that’s visually as well as in an audio sense ... different broadcasters have got different views.
“Where they actually land next Thursday night, they’re still working on, but hopefully it will be engaging our members and supporters and we’ll have a look and feel that generates some energy.”
Italian soccer powerhouse Juventus has explored a similar initiative to project holograms of star players on to empty stands when the Serie A season resumes on June 20.
McLachlan maintained that the league would “be ready” whenever fans could return to matches, and conceded that while he wanted to attend next Thursday night’s MCG clash between Richmond and Collingwood, he was wrestling with doing so given “the heartbeat of the game” – supporters – “can’t be there”.
“I don’t know (if I’m allowed to go) … I think technically, yes,” he said.
“I’d like to go, to be honest, certainly, for that first game, but I’ve got to work in with the protocols and what’s right and what’s appropriate … if I am there, I’ll be distanced from everyone else.”
BROWNLOW medallist Gerard Healy is extremely frustrated that Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority officials could potentially derail the AFL season this year.
It was revealed by The Age on Thursday that ASADA testers would not need to be tested for COVID-19 before conducting tests on AFL players, raising the prospect a tester could bring the virus into the quarantine hubs.
“The longer we are forced to live with the coronavirus, both within the more restricted world of sport and in the general society, the more we are subjected to some bizarrely hypocritical nonsense from governments at all levels,” Healy told 3AW Sportsday.
“In the world of sport there is nothing, and I repeat nothing, more bizarre and downright negligent from a government authority than the behaviour of ASADA.
“The AFL are spending millions of dollars complying with the government’s chief health officer demands to create isolation hubs to protect players from possible infection.
“Players themselves have accepted onerous living conditions to get the game under way, but at the same time the government body is sending ... operatives into the hubs to test players for drugs, but they themselves haven’t been tested for coronavirus.
“It seems bizarre ... in trying to keep the game drug-free, they could infect players in the hub and seriously disrupt the season. Ironically, the government body that exists to keep the sport clean, could in fact bring it down with its own lack of coronavirus hygiene.”
The AFL is unable to prevent testers from entering clubs and will also not be able to force testers to undertake a COVID-19 test.
Matt Balmer