Sports Impacted By Victoria’s COVID Lockdown

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he Victorian Government has announced yet another week-long lockdown beginning at 11:59pm tonight. Here’s what it means for this weekend’s fixtures.

AFL

There are four games scheduled to be played in Melbourne this weekend at both Marvel Stadium and the MCG.

Fox Sports reports fixtures that have been adjusted include: the game between Adelaide and Richmond moved from the MCG to New South Wales, and games between the Bulldogs and Melbourne Demons, Collingwood and Geelong, and North Melbourne and St Kilda to be played behind closed doors.

Players and staff from Carlton and Essendon left the state before the lockdown period, while Hawthorne’s game against the Suns in the Northern Territory is likely to be postponed or moved to Queensland.

Ticket sales were paused on Tuesday as the AFL waited to on Victorian Government directives to be announced, but the league acted quickly on Wednesday, putting players and staff into lockdown, limiting their movements and organising testing where necessary.

After a positive case attended the Collingwood v Port Adelaide game at the MCG on May 23, the MCG released a statement on Wednesday with information on where the person sat and stated it reviewing video footage to “determine if the advice to test and isolate will be broadened.”

NBL

Melbourne’s John Cain Arena was due to host two games this coming weekend.

The South-East Melbourne Phoenix will now play the Cairns Taipans at Pop-Up Arena in Cairns on Saturday while Melbourne United will also play the Taipans in Cairns on Monday.

Melbourne United faced the Brisbane Bullets over the weekend and will remain in Brisbane before traveling to Sydney for their game against the Kings on Saturday.

NBL commissioner, Jeremy Loeliger said in a statement: “We thank Melbourne United, South-East Melbourne Phoenix and the Cairns Taipans for their understanding and flexibility in the very trying circumstances.

“Both Melbourne teams are likely to be competing in the finals and temporarily relocating them gives them the best chance of being able to participate in the finals uninterrupted,” Loeliger said.

NRL

The Melbourne Storm have announced the team will “extend its camp at Twin Waters on the Sunshine Coast given the current fluid COVID-19 situation in Melbourne.”

The Storm play the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp stadium in Brisbane tonight.

The lockdown is due to end before the first State of Origin match is to be held at the MCG on June 9 but Fox Sportsreports NRL chief executive, Andrew Abdo is considering other venues.

“At this stage, we are monitoring the situation very carefully but if we have to increase protocols [for players] we will and if we need to consider a contingency plan for where we play Origin I, we will,” Abdo said on Tuesday.

“We are looking at several venues for that but we would have to see a significant increase in the number of community cases and the potential for lockdown in Victoria before we would consider that,” he said.

A-League

Three A-League games are scheduled to be played at Melbourne’s AAMI over the weekend.

Melbourne Victory and Western United are scheduled to play each other in the third ‘Battle of the Bridge’ on Friday night, with United to face MacArthur FC on Monday.

Melbourne City are also due to play the Newcastle Jets on Saturday evening.

The league is yet to make an announcement on the current COVID situation.