Carlton’s head of football Brad Lloyd insists the club did not give Liam Jones an ultimatum or timeframe regarding his stance surrounding vaccinations.
The defender has opted to retire from AFL football, citing personal reasons for his decision.
Lloyd says the unvaccinated 30-year-old was not given the hurry up to make a rash choice, with the club fully supportive.
“Liam has made it pretty clear that he wanted to keep the reasoning private, but I’ll work through what we can,” Lloyd said on SEN Breakfast.
“We were in regular contact with Liam through the end of the season around his playing future.
“We threw support around him so he could make a decision on where he wanted to go with his future, but it sort of escalated in the last week-and-a-half or so.
“It really came to a head late last week and over the weekend that Liam was pretty strong on his decision to retire from AFL footy.”
Lloyd assured Blues fans that he was not given a push by the club.
“I guess his reasoning is personal but there was no ultimatum in all of this,” he added.
“There is a choice throughout the industry but certainly no ultimatum whatsoever from that point of view.
“We give as much information on all areas of what’s happening at the moment and allow all our players to reach a decision.”
From a list viewpoint, Lloyd says Jones’ vacancy can be filled via the pre-season supplemental selection period (SSP).
He also indicated that the Blues will seek an extra selection at the National Draft later this month.
“We’ll be able to replace Liam’s position on the list,” Lloyd confirmed.
“The supplementary period where you have train-on players train with the club and then the ability to replace Liam’s position with one of those players post-draft.
“We’ll also discuss with the AFL the possibility of having another pick in the draft if that’s a chance.”
Lloyd says the club fully expects all currently listed players in both the AFL and AFLW programs to be fully vaccinated for the commencement of pre-season training.
“We really support the vaccination program through the State Government and the AFL,” he added.
“Our playing list, men’s and women’s, we expect to be fully vaccinated as we return to training in the next couple of weeks.
“So fully supportive throughout the playing group.”
Despite the Jones situation, new coach Michael Voss is all systems go towards his first season in charge at Ikon Park.
“We’ll move on really quickly with our playing list and work through ways to get another player in and keep moving,” Lloyd said further.
“He’s pretty excited about the season. Brian Cook’s started, Vossy’s got all his coaches on board and he’ll move pretty quickly.”
Jones played 95 games for Carlton between 2015 and 2021 after starting his AFL career with the Western Bulldogs where he played 66 matches.
He retires after 161 overall games across 13 seasons after he was drafted by the Dogs in 2008.