IT’S official, for the first time in the history of the AFL/VFL, the grand final will be played outside of Victoria with Queensland winning the right to host the big game.
And in another first, the match will be played under lights at the Gabba.
I’m sure most people, like me, weren’t shocked by the decision, it was made pretty obvious when the day before the announcement an entourage of AFL officials, players and their families, led by CEO Gil McLachlan were seen leaving Melbourne airport.
An estimated 400 AFL players, family members and officials have descended on Queensland under special quarantine arrangements.
Understandably, because of Victoria’s tough COVID-19 restrictions, the option of playing the grand final in Victoria could not even be considered.
Queensland was always going to be the front-runner, although there was some consideration to South Australia or Western Australia hosting the event.
But in the end, the sun and surf proved too much of a lure for McLachlan and his team.
I’m sorry, but as a proud Victorian and passioniate football follower, seeing McLachlan at the airport with his family preparing to board a plane for Queensland while the rest of us are still in lockdown was pretty hard to stomach.
In fact, it made me angry.
I know it will be no holiday for him, first he has to isolate for 14 days and then there is the ongoing management of the game through this extremely difficult time, but not a good look for a bloke, who only a week earlier, was telling a number of his employees, they no longer had a job because their isn’t enough money to keep them on.
But there still seems to be enough in the coffers to fly McLachlan, his family and the rest of the AFL team, who still have a job, to Queensland.
And I’m sure their “digs” for the next few weeks won’t be too shabby either, if the backdrop during his media conference on Wednesday afternoon is any indication.
I wonder how those people who lost their jobs last week and who are sitting at home in Melbourne in stage 4 lockdown, with a daily curfew in place, feel seeing their former boss and his family heading off to sunny Queensland?
Not sure they would be jumping for joy.
I’m not the only one who isn’t happy with the special treatment AFL players, officials and their families seem to be receiving over the rest of us, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg also took aim at the Queensland Government and the deal they have done with the AFL this week.
Frydenberg said the football hub showed two sets of rules on borders given regular punters had missed out on vital medical treatment.
“It’s just not on, that a young woman can lose an unborn child because of confusion at the borders,” he told the Nine Network on Thursday.
He said a Queensland grandmother recovering from brain surgery was forced to quarantine in a hotel.
“At the same time, footy officials can go down to their hotel bar as they are so-called quarantined in Queensland,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“It seems double standards on our borders.”
I’m not saying McLachlan shouldn’t be in Queensland, he needs to be. It’s the way it came across in the media which has got be riled.
Not a good look, Gil.
