Team takes flight for life in Perth isolation
GEELONG is expecting to be greeted by strict restrictions when it lands in Perth on Saturday to start a two-week isolation.
The players and staff will spend today in Sydney busy with a scratch match against Collingwood before the flight west.
They will check in to Crown Perth on Saturday and will be greeted by a truck full of fitness equipment and personal items that has been driven across the Nullarbor.
Under West Australian COVID-19 rules, the Cats will only be allowed out of the hotel for training and playing in the next fortnight.
The West Australian Government has allowed Geelong to play Collingwood on Thursday and the clubs are preparing for a second consecutive practice match next week.
But they will not be allowed to interact with anybody outside of that bubble until the customary two-week isolation is over, meaning it is likely Geelong’s Round 7 match will need to take place on July 26.
Players had enjoyed the chance to walk around and pick up takeaway coffees while in Sydney but those activities will not be allowed in the west.
Even Perth media has been told to stay away and not mix with any players.
The families of Rhys Stanley and Harry Taylor were given an exemption and will be able to spend the fortnight on family farms while in Perth.
While Sam Menegola also brought his family with him for the trip to Perth, they will stay at the hotel with the group.
“Those families (Stanley and Taylor) have been given special exemption to go to their family farms to quarantine once they get to Perth, and the only one who’s going to stay at the hotel is the Menegolas,” Geelong chief executive Brian Cook said on 3AW.
“That’s on the basis we’re away for 32 days. We’re hoping that is the maximum but if there is longer periods than the AFL at the moment are considering and doing some work around the need to bring other families over to Western Australia or up to Queensland, or whatever the case may be.”
Once the fortnight of isolation is over, families and players will be free to mix again and the Cats players and staff will hope to make the most of the surfboard and golf clubs that were packed into the truck.