Male players and staff at clubs in WA, Queensland and South Australia have until February 18 to have a second vaccination dose while all Victorian and NSW-based players and staff working at clubs have received two jabs.

Only West Coast’s Jack Darling and North Melbourne Jed Anderson remain on their club’s list while yet to adhere to the AFL’s vaccination policy. Carlton’s Liam Jones and Cam Ellis-Yolmen of the Brisbane Lions both retired after refusing to abide by the policy.

AFL general manager competition management Laura Kane said the Blues and Magpies were ready to do what’s required.

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“The health and safety of everyone in the community remains paramount and the AFL, together with Fremantle, the West Coast Eagles and the travelling teams, have agreed to strict protocols as approved by the Western Australian government,” she said.

The AFL did not wish to detail what the specific protocols were but league sources say the teams will be restricted to their hotels and undergo an extensive COVID testing regime.

The overall AFLW round-six fixture has undergone a change in times to ensure adequate breaks between matches.

“Firstly, I’d like to acknowledge Fremantle and the West Coast Eagles for the role they’ve played in ensuring the season commenced and the season continues,” Kane said.

“Fremantle is currently serving a quarantine period after returning to Perth following their game on Sunday while West Coast returned to Perth following their game last night after both teams spent time on the road in Victoria.

“While the ongoing pandemic continues to impact and challenge our competition and our wider community, we want to thank every AFLW club, players and the AFLPA, umpires, venues, governments, ticketing agents and all supporters for their understanding and commitment to the 2022 NAB AFL Women’s competition.

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“The fixture remains a week-to-week proposition and the AFL will continue to work closely with respective state governments and health authorities on arrangements that both protects the health and safety of the community and allows us to progress the NAB AFLW season.”

WA Premier Mark McGowan recently hinted there would be a lift in border bans for sporting competitions, insisting his government had a history of productive negotiations with sporting codes.

“We’ll continue to work on those measures with sporting codes,” McGowan said last week.

“You might recall, Western Australia saved the AFL season last year. We saved the AFL. Great grand final, held with a full crowd in a very safe environment.

“If sporting codes don’t want to adhere to the rules we put in place, for instance cricket didn’t want to, so we didn’t hold the Ashes Test here in January. Well, that’s a decision for them.”

The league’s showpiece event was shifted to Perth for the first time, edging Brisbane and Adelaide for the right to host what culminated in a clash between the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne. The latter ended a 57-year premiership drought.

WA was due to pull down its hard border on February 5 but McGowan indefinitely delayed the move last month, insisting reopening at this time would be “reckless and irresponsible” due to the Omicron variant.

Round six AFLW updated fixture:

(All times AEDT)
Friday, Feb 11
Gold Coast v Geelong, Metricon Stadium, 7.10pm

Saturday, Feb 12
Richmond v North Melbourne, Swinburne Centre Punt Road Oval, 2.10pm
Melbourne v GWS, Casey Fields, 4.10pm
Fremantle v Carlton, Fremantle Oval, 6.10pm

Sunday, Feb 13
St Kilda v Brisbane, Wilson Storage Trevor Barker Oval, 1.10pm
West Coast v Collingwood, Mineral Resources Park, 3.10pm
Adelaide v Western Bulldogs, Norwood Oval, 5.10pm

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