West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has defended the decision to allow AFLW matches to go ahead in Perth despitxjmtzywe an outcry from ordinary citizens who can’t get permission to break his state’s hard border.
Collingwood and Carlton AFLW teams have been given special exemption to fly in and out of Perth across the weekend, with national sport returning to the WA capital for the first time since December.
While all players and staff will adhere to strict biosecurity rules, the plans are in stark contrast to rules that demand all arrivals into WA being required to spend a mandatory seven days in quarantine.
That rule not only applied to returning West Coast and Fremantle AFLW players but also former Australian cricket coach Justin Langer and others.
The exemptions have caused anger among people who haven’t been allowed back into WA under any circumstances.
But McGowan said the rules being applied had been in use for two years despite local NBL, A-League and BBL teams being forced on the road since late last year.
“We have put in place arrangements for sports over the course of the last two years that require rigorous quarantine and testing requirements. That isn‘t unusual and we did that for the (AFL) grand final,” the Premier told reporters.
“The arrangements we put in place in conjunction with the codes have been very safe, it‘s just a continuation of what we’ve done over the course of the last two years.
“There’s a team of people who work on this with the sporting codes, and they’ll work through the issues, sometimes there’s specific issues.
“It‘s proven to be very safe over the course of the last two years. We haven’t had any outbreaks out of it and we held the AFL grand final here very safely.”
Perth Glory hosted their opening A-League men’s fixture at HBF Park in November before hitting the road, while NBL powerhouse Perth Wildcats have not played at their RAC Arena base since December 17.
The Perth Scorchers won the Big Bash League title in Melbourne last month after being away from WA for almost the entire tournament.
West Coast and Fremantle were away from Perth for three weeks of the AFLW season but both returned home this week.
McGowan said he was confident all those teams would be back hosting matches in Perth sooner rather than later.
