West Coast CEO Trevor Nisbett has expressed his feelings towards the seven players who breached COVID protocols by attending a Perth nightclub last weekend.
Five players partied at the Hip-E Club in Leederville following last Friday night’s loss to Richmond - Josh Rotham, Jackson Nelson, Jake Waterman, Rhett Bazzo and Campbell Chesser - with a further two yet to be named.
Nisbett says the septet will be punished financially on Monday after hurting their coach, their fellow players and the club as a whole.
“It was a real slap in the face for our processes and our guidelines, but having said that, the guys haven’t broken the law,” Nisbett said on SEN WA Breakfast.
“From a club and team perspective, I know the other players are really disappointed because they’ve had to be extremely disciplined through a period. Albeit we’ve copped the worst of COVID but it doesn’t help if guys are going to go outside guidelines.
“Consequently, they’ll have to cop the consequences but we’ll deal with that today and it will be finished and we can move on.”
Nisbett says suspending players is unlikely given the personnel issues the club has faced with COVID wreaking havoc in Perth in recent weeks.
He describes the emotions of those involved as being “ashamed” and “embarrassed”.
“In normal circumstances, some of the guys might face a suspension of a week or so or be unavailable for selection, but as it stands we aren’t in that position where we can afford to do that. That’s a problem in its own right,” he added.
“My expectation is that it will be a fine involved and these players will have to cop that sweet.
“There’s seven players in total. The guys are pretty much ashamed of themselves and embarrassed, that goes without saying.
“But that doesn’t detract from the fact that they did the wrong thing. We will deal with the seven guys in a professional manner and we hope that this is a story and another education piece that we can say to them this is totally unacceptable and an opportunity to do the best you possibly can so you avoid the COVID situation.
“That’s something we have drummed into the guys for nearly two and a half years. In most cases they’ve been very disciplined, but in this case they haven’t been.”
Nisbett again insisted the actions were not against the law, but did touch on the “brand damage” the incident has caused.
“They haven’t broken the law, they haven’t done things that are going to hurt someone directly, but it certainly hurt their coach, their playing group, the club,” he said.
“The brand damage they’ve done to themselves is probably as important as anything else. They all understand that.
“Naming them, we didn’t have to name the players. The players were in the public arena so it wasn’t a case of the club coming out and having to name them.
“We don’t have to chase a lot of the facts, they were already there. It’s a pretty ordinary thing that has happened and we have to deal with it.
“We were devastated because we expect that our players are going to heed the advice guidelines and they’re there to represent our football club as professional athletes.
“Unfortunately in this case, they haven’t adhered to protocol.”
The Eagles will hold a press conference later on Monday where they will address the breach and hand down their punishments to the players involved.