North Melbourne was one of two Victorian AFLW teams asked if they had the capacity to head interstate for a couple of weeks as part of complex fixture planning.
As part of discussions with the AFLPA, the Roos, along with St Kilda, were asked whether they could head interstate to help the league avoid double-up games and get around border restrictions.
While the Saints ultimately agreed and were on board with the plan, North Melbourne said they couldn’t.
Kangaroos captain Emma Kearney explained why her club was reluctant to relocate.
“It’s a little bit harder for our team, we’ve got three mums and one of those mums has two children in school and that’s really challenging,” Kearney told SEN’s Bob and Andy.
“We were one of two teams asked to go into a hub last week, but we strongly pushed back just because we didn’t have the player availability.
“We have a lot of nurses, we’ve got a couple of police officers and they would really struggle to get time off work.
“Of the 30 on our list we would probably only have 20 available.
“So in terms of the integrity of the competition, we were probably at quite a disadvantage.”
The Roos take on Richmond on Friday night in a hugely important game in the context of their season, with only percentage separating them from Melbourne outside the top six.
The Round 6 AFLW fixture sees Victorian teams facing off against one another.
The non-Victorian teams have all already played each other and will double up this weekend.
West Coast and Fremantle are yet to face any Victorian team so far in 2021.
Pending another week without COVID-19 cases in the community, the West Australian border restrictions could be eased on March 13.