Nick's Collingwood Bulletin Board

Just heard: Gil McLachlin presser at 4 pm.

To be confirmed: Essendon player possible positive test for Covid.

From Whately: The player in question is Conor McKenna.

so what happens to the competition?

think positive wrote:so what happens to the competition?

No one knows, but this appears to be largely a problem for Essendon.

Essendon won't play the next two weeks though.

I assume the rest of the games will be played as normal and Melbourne and Carlton will have a bye as they were scheduled to play Essendon tomorrow and next week respectively.

Essendon's match postponed.

*McKenna was in isolation for 14 days after returning from Ireland. And did not bring it to Australia. He has picked it up in Australia somewhere.

*McKenna did not travel to Sydney last week and has not taken part in an AFL game in 2020.

*McKenna had been tested several times since retuning to Essendon.

*McKenna had not shown any symptoms, but has been carrying Covid-19.

*All Essendon players and staff have been tested again in the last 24 hours.

*Only McKenna has returned a positive result after being re-tested this morning.

*Essendon FC to be closed down and cleaned in the next 24 hours.

*Essendon Vs Melbourne postponed. Lots of speculation about when the game will be played. Some suggesting on a Tuesday night or the introduction of a bye round, but the AFL will reschedule after more information is available.

I can't help but feel for Conor McKenna. To be weighed down by the burden of being the first AFL player to test positive and being so very far from home. Back to isolation for yet another 14 days too, after he only just came out of it.

Being meaner than PPie, I gotta say, if I'd been asked to guess which Essendon player it'd be, I'd have guessed correctly.

I wouldn't blame someone for getting infected, but this kid has "issues".

"Sources confirmed that McKenna is suspected to have breached the AFL's tight rules - which are far stricter than those facing the community - and that it will investigate his actions, while it also deals with the Department of Health and Human Services to contact trace the Irish defender and seeks to prevent any further infections.

While McKenna might be found to have breached protocols - which brings penalties from the AFL - the priority of the league is to prevent any further infections and assist with the contact tracing, rather than any breach of rules."

(Fairfax)

So what did he do?

Sounds like Essendon was not in match sim on Friday training but in groups. This means all 8 players in McKenna’s group (not yet released) will have to self isolate until the end of Friday week. AFL insist Essendon will play if it can field 22 players and these players won’t be available for Carlton & Collingwood games.

Nice bit of luck for us let’s just hope they don’t postpone it now.

Not fair to make Essendon (or any team) play missing 8 key players.

Best thing for AFL to do is restructure the season to be like the EPL. Non finals, just play as many games a possible and the winner is who is on top. Use percentage wins to allow for possible uneven number of games played.

Well, if McKenna broke the AFL rules, they need to throw the book at him.

I've got an idea. Why don't the AFL take all their points off them, finish them ninth and give their entire playing list a 2-year suspension?

K wrote:Well, if McKenna broke the AFL rules, they need to throw the book at him.

sure they will, but you can't punish the entire team