Victoria’s ALeague football sides joining exodus as border closure looms

MELBOURNE: With the New South Wales border closure imminent, Victoria’s three ALeague teams are set to join AFL, NRL and Super Rugby teams in departing the state.

Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City and Western United are poised to depart Victoria and leave the state bereft of topline professional football teams as the border with NSW slams shut.

The announcement yesterday that the NSWVictoria border will close at 11.59 tonight due to Melbourne’s worsening Covid19 outbreak is expected to force the ALeague’s hand and drive

Melbourne’s three clubs to relocate to NSW for this month’s season restart.

After the government announcement, the ALeague clubs were in discussion with the FFA, while Melbourne City were making plans to arrive in NSW before the border closure.

Like the 10 AFL teams, NRL’s Melbourne Storm and Super Rugby’s Melbourne Rebels, Victoria’s ALeague clubs will have no clear idea when they can return home.

Some Victorian AFL clubs travelled to their hubs on Sunday, with the remainder to depart by last night.

Melbourne Storm has been based outside Victoria for almost two weeks, originally relocating to NSW for one game before setting up camp on the Sunshine Coast. The side will play its home games in Brisbane for the foreseeable future.

The Rebels moved to Canberra on June 26 and will play their home games at a range of venues.

Supercars, which has several teams based in Victoria, said it was discussing options for those teams with health and government authorities.

The Victorian ALeague clubs had previously been briefed on the possibility of heading into a NSW hub before their return to play and had been preparing to move interstate if necessary.

Western United is due to play

Melbourne Victory on July 16 and then Melbourne City on July 20, with the venue for both games initially listed as ‘‘TBC’’, depending on border restrictions.

The Victorian clubs had originally hoped to play those games at AAMI Park in Melbourne before heading into a NSW hub but that had looked increasingly unlikely in recent days and now appears impossible given Victoria’s coronavirus spike.

It will be the first time the border between Victoria and NSW has been shut in 100 years. Officials last blocked movement between the two states in 1919 during the Spanish flu pandemic.

Victoria's only other internal border, with South Australia state, is already closed.

Yesterday Victoria reported two deaths and 127 new Covid19 cases. There were 650 active cases in the state. — AAP/ Reuters