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![Not allowed!](images/buttons/up_dis.png)
Press conference happening now
We won't be watching rugby in Perth this year
C'mon the![]()
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I work in schools. This sucks on a lot of levels, but I am really, really glad this decision has been made at this point in time. I wonder how long it will last.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
https://thewest.com.au/sport/covid-1...side-c-5386502
COVID-19: Glory, Lynx, Wildcats, Eagles, Dockers, Scorchers all scrambling after border blindside
Braden Quartermaine, Nick Taylor, Craig O’Donoghue & Eliza Reilly
The West Australian
Thu, 20 January 2022 9:37PM
WA’s professional sports teams were left in shock and limbo on Thursday night after Premier Mark McGowan announced the February 5 border opening date would be delayed indefinitely.
As Perth Glory owner Tony Sage put it: “We’re f...ked.”
It lobbed a grenade at the 2022 AFL fixture, while the seasons of the summer teams have now descended into chaos -- with some fearing financial disaster should their home fixtures have to be scrapped.
Perth Wildcats, Perth Glory, Perth Lynx and the Fremantle and West Coast AFLW teams are on the east coast and had planned to return following the opening date for a glut of catch-up home games. Perth Scorchers are preparing for their 14th away game in a row on Saturday in a final against Sydney Sixers.
Players from all sports will be allowed back into the State, but the fact they will now need to serve 14 days quarantine on return to WA will cause havoc.
The Wildcats were due to celebrate their 40th anniversary with a match against New Zealand at RAC Arena on February 6. The Lynx were also going to return from Victoria just days after the border opened. They haven’t played a game in front of home fans since the pandemic struck.
Fremantle and West Coast look set to spend the remainder of the AFLW season based in Victoria. The regular season is set to conclude in early March with finals to follow, leaving both clubs stranded on the east coast until then.
Glory’s men are expecting to play at least another five matches before flying back to WA while the women are scheduled to play three more games before returning home early February.
McGowan offered no indication on how long the border could remain closed, but offered the AFL clubs a glimmer of hope when he hinted they may be able to negotiate further exemptions from the rules announced to allow travelling teams into Perth.
“Sport is not my number one priority,” the Premier said.
“Obviously we’ll do what we did over the course of the last two years – sit down and work with the codes about what can be done.
“And we don’t know how long this arrangement will be in place for. That’s the nature of COVID.
“We work it out as we go along. We’ll work out arrangements that are pretty strong and tough subject to police and health advice. The Ashes didn’t want to abide by it so they didn’t come.”
If the Eagles and Dockers men’s teams are forced to start the season on the road, the AFL will have to decide whether they lose scheduled home games or if the fixture can be re-written to allow them a block of games in Perth towards the end of the season should rules loosen.
Glory chief executive Tony Pignata told The West Australian he was shattered.
“It’s a shocker. I’m flabbergasted. We asked specifically before we left about a date to come home.
“Yes, we can come back, but we have to do 14 days quarantine. Some families are with players now but it’s a lot to take in.
“You’ve got children at school, they have their own lives.”
Former Glory captain Rostyn Griffiths, a West Australian who now plays for Melbourne City, labelled McGowan “an absolute f….n clown” on Twitter.
International cricket coach Mickey Arthur, whose family is based in Perth, said he had not been able to get back to see his daughters for two years.
Dockers legend Matthew Pavlich, who has family in South Australia, tweeted: “Seriously?!”
The West Coast and Fremantle men’s teams are facing the galling prospect of having to start their seasons on the road and remain away indefinitely.
The Western Force’s season is due to kick-off on Saturday February 19 against the Brumbies at HBF Park.
Rugby Australia and Super Rugby clubs have been in talks about moving the five Australian sides into a COVID-19 bubble to ensure the competition can go ahead.
Force chief executive Tony Lewis was “extremely disappointed” but said: “We all sit down and take a deep breath.
“There’s no point panicking. We will work our way through this.
“We have to sit down with the government and Rugby Australia and see what we’re going to do, what the government are going to allow sporting teams to do.
“If we can guarantee that incoming teams are all double vaxed, will stay in a bubble and are safe there might be some avenue. Let’s see how it unfolds.”
So disappointed that we might not see our team. I can understand why they don’t want to open up but was so looking forward to this year. 🙁
I'm not going to criticise McGowan or his health advisors for a continuing cautious approach. He has said people can return here and quarantine at home from 5 Feb. I will criticise him if the government does not consider the "bubble approach" in these circumstances, provided protocols can be agreed by the AFL, Rugby Australia etc.
I don't think anyone believes Omicron can be controlled here now. But you don't have to look far to see what happens when a f@ckwit is in charge and follows the "let it rip" strategy. I think this is simply an attempt to hold back the flood until enough people have been boosted, children have a chance to get shots and there are sufficient stocks of RATs. I'm in the 70% who agree with this.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
It is total lack of planning on a mega scale. 18 months ago he laid into the Feds for lack of Vaccine orders and incompetent roll out. During this time he should have mobilized his task force to get remote communities vaxed and to allay fears of religious groups to animal products in the vaccines. He then had the daily fight with NSW and the feds over preferential vaccine distribution, he keeps pointing out to failures every where else, scare mongering is a very tried and true way to keep population subjugated - look at history. Yes there are deaths over East but he fails to put it into perspective. Use Simpson's paradox - if you have 500 hospital admissions each day - how many are unvaxed, how many are single dose, how many are medically compromised? It's scary to say "look at their deaths" . How great to say we will have 550 more beds at the end of this year - Why did he not plan for that last year. Before we knew the extent of this pandemic - Twiggy threw the kitchen sink at it and got plane loads of PPE and ventilators. Total incompetence in my humble opinion. I voted for this guy, as I really thought he and his team were united, committed and good for our state.
Agreed.
Why did he sit on his hands regarding pandemic infrastructure for 18 months and then, at the last minute, plan to spend $millions on a quarantine centre in Jandakot Bullsbrook when he was planning to remove quarantine and re-open borders, but not invest in the health system that was obviously going to be hit hardest when the pandemic arrives?
And now 2 weeks from his hard & locked-in re-opening date, he flips 180 and pulls the rug from under everyone's feet?
A week ago he said the 5th Feb date was not moving. What changed in the last week!? Eastern States are actually talking about being near their peak with Omicron, so case numbers there should start to decline. Yet suddenly McGowan has initiated his "unforseen catastrophe" get-out clause, whish should have been triggered a month ago, when the genuinely unforseen catastrophe of Omicron started to blow out the numbers.
What incentive is there now for the wavering to get the jab?
- They know they can't trust McGowan's dates anymore.
- There is no new end date or percentage to aim for.
- Vaccine efficacy reduces over time so those who are having their boosters now will be less protected when the new date is finally announced
So why not hold off getting your first, second or third jab until nearer the new target date is "confirmed" (for what little that seems to matter anymore!)
Also, if the borders are staying shut, what is the point of the new restrictions coming in on 31 January?
They were in preparation for a 5/2 re-opening.
If there is already (admittedly low) community spread, why not force the changes in now, rather than waiting another week and a half, or scrap them until nearer the next moving target that McGowan introduces?
So; you people tearing into him saw Omicron, a real game changer, in your crystal balls? Why didn't you let the rest of us in on it? And did you forsee that double Vax is virtually no protection?
Gotta love a Monday Morning Fly-Half.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
Quarantine is a Federal Government responsibility, they couldn't get the land at Jandakot "On their terms" so they instead decide to build it out on Commonwealth Land in Bullsbrook. The Feds have shirked their responsibilities since the pandemic began, remember the line "it's not a race" from Scotty last year when he didn't order enough vaccines? That worked out well, it's almost as if everything the Federal Government touches turns to mud.
The Doherty report modelling that ScoMo and Fraudenberg hold so dearly was based on Delta not Omicron, the sensible thing would have been to re-instate hotel quarantine in December (NSW and Victoria scrapped it all together in November) and to see what the new variant could do.
Instead Scotty has an election coming up in 2022 so charged full steam ahead with the line "it's not as bad as Delta" and now essential services are being trashed.
The economy in Sydney and Melbourne is now worse off than under lockdown conditions.
1. Double vax is still protection against seriousness illness, apparently it is not good against infection - 2 different aspects.
2. WHO advised the world that South Africa had discovered a new variant in early November. Initial indications showed this variant to be highly contagious. This was confirmed in case numbers in Gauteng rising drastically. Initially the world announced this variant as the South African variant which was discounted when the same variant was found in Germany, the U.K. and Singapore. The severity of this variant at that time in November was unknown. December 8th the first Omicron cases were found in Sydney. By that time the world suspected the Omicron was not as severe as Delta in causing Hospitalization, but did confirm infection rate to be much higher than Delta. On December 15th Emperor McGowan announced opening date of 5th February????
Last night he conceded there was still uncertainty but used scare mongering to justify the closure of our borders.
Even Monday's Fly half would keep up with the news and in December recognise the uncertainty was far greater, so why did he announce Feb 5th????
The man is covering up his incompetence. Putin, Chavez, Honecker, Castro, etc all used exactly the same script, deflect, blame others, raise the alarm levels, scare the bejesus out of the masses because you are lazy, incompetent, narcissi tic and arrogant.
Maybe I'm just a glass-half-full type of bloke.
A different perspective on yesterday's Covid numbers for Australia.
Although there were an additional 75,700 cases, very pleased to see that there were 101,200 recoveries/adjustments.
Current active cases: 669,800
99.21% of active cases were NOT hospitalised (5,274 were).
99.94% of active cases were NOT in ICU (418 were)
99.98% of cases did NOT need a ventilator (141 did).
Of the 1,155,200 Covid cases in Australia from 1st-20th January, thankfully 99.94% have NOT died (sadly 660 Aussies have).
Tragically about 3,000 Aussies have died from Covid over the past 2 years.
An analysis of Aussies who have died from Influenza/Pneumonia over the last 20 years shows:
+ Average deaths of ~2,900 per year
+Max (2017): 4,270 (There was a maximum of 8,000 Aussies in hospital in NSW that year).
+Min (2008): 1,760
With our 1,338 cases over the past 2 years WAustralians have developed little natural protection/community immunity which is what enabled South Africa to recover quickly from the recent Omicron outbreak.
I understand our State Government's dilema.
There is an old saying that is something like:
"Once you've decided to ride the tiger, the hardest decision is working out how to get off safely."
Last edited by andrewg; 21-01-22 at 12:06.
No, but why wait until 2 weeks before the re-opening date to do a 180 turn, when only last week (when NSW, QLD & VIC were already balls-deep in Omicron) he said that the 5 Feb date was locked in? What changed in the last week? If anything, the Eastern States have shown that it appears to be reaching a peak already, so why delay the WA re-opening until closer to the winter...which seems medically questionable at best! Or is he now planning on staying closed until AFTER the winter flu season has abated, locking the state out from the rest of the country and the world for closer to 3 YEARS?
Omicron isn't a "game changer"; It's a variant. It wasn't the first, and it won't be the last.
If we are going to crap ourselves every time a new variant comes along, we may as well hunker down for the long-haul, as we won't be fully re-entering the world this side of the Brisbane Olympics on that basis!
I do understand what a variant is. When a new one is resistant to double vax, upon which all planning was done, I'd call that a game changer. If not I don't know what would be. But everyone is entitled to an opinion even if they are dead wrong.
If you put aside trying to rationalise the situation by infection rates to hospitalisation/death rates and just look at the raw numbers in hospitals, things don't look so rosy. The economic situation looks pretty crook too. Fact is the majority of people (70% - 30%) agree with the Emperor. So it is what it is.
Perhaps the next variants will be milder again. I hope so.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David