Despite the prospect of playing this year’s Grand Final being played in front of an empty stadium, West Coast Eagles star Nic Naitanui isn’t expecting the AFL to budge on the venue.
There’s been suggestions that the league could look at shift the 2020 AFL Grand Final away from the MCG but Naitanui cheekily suggested said he isn’t expecting any favours.
“I’d love for it to but it’s probably fair to say it’s not going to happen,” he said on SEN Breakfast.
“I think we’ve got a better chance playing at (IKON Park) than playing it at Optus Stadium. It would be great but I can’t see it happening.
As the league prepares to release a new fixture and announce a return to play date – likely next week – it’s emerged that strict border restrictions in Western Australia could mean a temporary relocation to Victoria for both West Coast and Fremantle to start the season.
WA Premier Marc McGowan said on Wednesday that he wasn’t prepared to change his stance on border restrictions to meet the needs of sports leagues such as the AFL.
Naitanui admitted the prospect of leaving the state for multiple weeks to start the season has been raised internally but was hoping restrictions would be relaxed in the coming weeks.
“We spoke about (having to relocate to Melbourne) as a group,” Naitanui said.
“The government laws are different in each state and Western Australia has been one of the only states that have that two weeks quarantine (for domestic travellers), we can’t really fly in and out like the other states.
“Fingers crossed they give us an exception but if not, we might have to relocate to Victoria and it might be a little training hub for a while.
“It’ll be interesting but fingers crossed we don’t get to that stage.”
Naitanui said the club was also dealing the prospect of interstate players returning to the state having to quarantine for two weeks before being allowed train outside.
“We had a chat with (coach Adam Simpson) yesterday and I think next week they’re going to make a call (on the season),” he said.
“They’re saying potentially some stage of June we’ll come back and train as a group, I think it kind of depends when games start. We’re dictated to by the government and what they choose, especially being here in Western Australia.
“The hardest thing is we’ve got boys who have gone interstate and gone home once we found out the season has been postponed and they’ll come back tomorrow. They’ve got to do two weeks of quarantine so they can’t train.
“A few of those boys will be running on treadmills for two weeks but post that we can get back into larger groups outside.”
You can listen to Nic Naitanui on SEN Breakfast in the player below.