James Stewart is the only Essendon player who will have to go into quarantine along with his AFL teammate Conor McKenna.
Essendon’s AFL clash against Carlton on Saturday will go ahead as scheduled with only one other Bombers player deemed to have been in close contact with Conor McKenna, who returned a positive coronavirus test last weekend.
The entire Essendon playing list was tested at Marvel Stadium on Monday – with all, aside from McKenna, returning a negative result on Tuesday morning.
Fringe key forward James Stewart is the only other Bombers player who will go into quarantine, along with McKenna, after a ruling from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Stewart, 26, missed almost all of the 2019 campaign with a groin injury and did not feature in the Bombers’ opening two wins this year against Fremantle and Sydney.
“This has clearly been a sensitive and delicate matter, and as a club, the health and wellbeing of our players and staff, particularly Conor and James, has been our number one priority throughout this period,” Bombers chief executive officer Xavier Campbell said.
“The public nature of our industry has made this task even more difficult but we are now pleased to have reached an outcome with the DHHS.”
Essendon’s round-three clash with Melbourne last Sunday was postponed after McKenna’s positive test and has yet to be rescheduled.
There were fears that the Bombers could have been without a host of players for the next fortnight as fellow defenders Adam Saad, Cale Hooker, Michael Hurley, Matt Guelfi, Jordan Ridley and Mason Redman had reportedly been in McKenna’s training group.
Full-contact training has since been banned at all clubs by the AFL in response to McKenna’s test result and with COVID-19 cases continuing to increase at concerning levels in Victoria.
Clubs will be permitted to continue contact training in groups of up to nine, and larger groups can still conduct ball movement drills without contact.
“The players will formally recommence training on Wednesday morning at the NEC Hangar in preparation for our round four game against Carlton on Saturday night,” Campbell said.
Essendon will face the Blues at the MCG.
Nick
Roar Guru
Yup...which backs my comment up entirely. A bye round will happen eventually. Make up games can be played then.
Maxy
Roar Rookie
pretty sure cats and pies are heading over there spruce
Nick
Roar Guru
The more likely scenario is that a few Vic teams will have to go to WA. There will need to be a bye round. Catch up games such as this will be done during a bye round. But you go ahead and live in your world of naivety where a footballer doesn't try to big themselves up in front of a camera.
Col from Brissie
Roar Guru
Why Spruce? Do you think Melbourne went flat-out in their intra-club game? When they do play Essendon later in the season it will probably be on a Wednesday after they have played another team on the week-end. Don’t you think Melbourne might want to get their season back to normal like the other teams that have now played one more game instead of it playing on their minds as to when they will eventually play Essendon.
Nick
Roar Guru
So what? You reckon a footballer is going to come out and admit "gee, we were actually pretty knackered from our training session on Sunday, so boy aren't we lucky we didn't have to play midweek". Of course Viney is going to say that after the fact. Every footballer would. Come on, Col.
Col from Brissie
Roar Guru
Spruce, there was an article in The Age where Jack Viney said Melbourne were keen & ready to play Essendon tonight.
Nick
Roar Guru
yes, but Gerard Whateley is prone to opening his mouth before engaging the noggin. The AFL already gave Melbourne the green light to run a full contact intraclub match in lieu of the cancelled fixture. It would be disproportionately unfair to Melbourne to then back up again only a couple of days later. It's not the Demons fault this happened at the end of the day.
Clay
Roar Pro
I've always been partial to Lance Whitnall's final goal, helped in no small part by Drew Morphett's brilliant commentary.
Col from Brissie
Roar Guru
I liked Gerard Whately ‘s idea that given there are only 2 Essendon players in isolation Melbourne & Essendon should be playing tomorrow night to get the fixture back to some normality and then Carlton play Essendon on Monday night.
Charlie Keegan
Roar Guru
You can’t solely blame this on the bombers it was a when proposition not an if someone would test positive
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Reminds me exactly of a certain other preliminary final featuring Mason Cox. A large group of Tiger fans near me were calling out “Spud” early on before going quiet very quickly. You had the satisfaction of winning by a point though whereas many fair weather Tiger Fans departed long before the siren. The 1999 though is an epic preliminary for anyone who wants to watch some great footy theatre
Dexter The Hamster
Roar Rookie
Good point. The shorter quarters are to allow for some flexible scheduling. Why not make use of it?
Macca
Roar Rookie
Yeah not keen on it, not sure why they don't just push the game back a couple of days to give that extra certainty.
Macca
Roar Rookie
I was at that game in 1999 Pete one of the most satisfying ever, listening to all the bombers supporters around us chatting about where they were going to get their grand final tickets before the game started and then watching them march out while the Blues supporters where singing our hearts out. You forgot the moment of the match Browny bringing down Wallis.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
And according to the AFL Covid rules Macca, as long as you can field a team, you have to play regardless who is out. Could derail the Blues 2020 this decision
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Payback Covid to the Blues Macca for that 1999 preliminary final . Bombers had 33 shots to 24, Kouta went nuts , win by a point and kept the minor premier out of the GF.
MG
Roar Rookie
It's an experiment to see just how infectious this virus is! That video of him at training makes me think there's a bit of risk here. If another player gets infected, gets damaged lungs and it ruins his career, what would the pay out be? You would think that would make them think twice but no this week's footy is all important.
Gary
Roar Rookie
Agreed. The whole idea of shorter qtrs was to enable more nimble fixturing for situations like this. Monday night would also pls broadcasters. And, the optics of playing again so quickly, with only one player deemed to have been exposed to McKenna, might send a confusing message to the public… which is not ideal with community spread on the rise in Victoria.
Macca
Roar Rookie
"On this basis Carlton has no reason to fear “contamination” from Essendon players." There is a reason people are quarantined for 2 weeks not 4 days. If Carlton play the bombers of Saturday night the are just half way through the incubation period - there "could" be multiple players who are carrying the virus. That is certainly a reason for Carlton players to fear contamination.
Macca
Roar Rookie
:shocked: :unhappy: :sick: