Neil Balme says the major worry with coronavirus is that if just one player contracts the virus, the whole AFL competition could be called off or postponed.
As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc with the sporting landscape, there is enormous uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season which is due to kick off on Thursday, March 19 when Richmond host Carlton at the MCG.
Balme, Richmond's Senior Club Advisor, expects the season opener to go ahead in front of a crowd but is none the wiser as to what will happen thereafter.
“I think there will be (a crowd) then but I can’t guarantee anything after that,” he said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“It’s a crazy thing and it’s hard to manage. It’s hard to know what the impact on the community is going to be.
“The scary thing for us is that if all of a sudden one of our players came down with the disease, what the hell do we do then?
“Everyone is kind of then involved and everyone sort of can’t play, if you know what I mean.
“That’s the thing from our point of view. We’ll be over-conservative, try and make sure we protect our playing group and our coaches etc from having to be involved in too many other things out in the community, just in case.
“There’s a certain inevitability about most of us seeing the disease at some stage but as long as we’ve got the facilities to look after it.
“Essentially, what we are trying to do is put off anything too serious. All of a sudden if everyone needs to be treated, we are probably not going to be able to do it (play).
“Part of our strategy is just to try and minimise as much as we can and see what happens.
“None of us really know the answer or know what’s going to happen.”
