Richmond football chief Neil Balme has revealed at least two experienced players are unlikely to travel to the AFL’s Queensland hub, while the club will choose to leave some younger players at home.
Balme did not specify which players have opted out of the hub, but it has been speculated star veterans Bachar Houli and Shane Edwards would find it difficult to go into a hub for family reasons.
“There’s a couple that I think won’t go and we’ll probably make a decision on some of our younger guys,” Balme told 3AW on Sunday.
“There are a few guys who are unlikely to get a game. They’ll almost be wasting their time going up, so we’ll leave them back here with some coaches.
“They can get some genuine one-on-one improvement so that later on in the season they’ll be able to make a difference rather than almost making the numbers up.”
Balme believes skipper Trent Cotchin is set to take his family with him into the hub when the Tigers depart on Monday.
The exodus of AFL clubs from Victoria began on Sunday with Collingwood and Hawthorn sharing a flight to Sydney.
The league confirmed on Friday that all 10 Victorian clubs would be required to leave the state – which is gripped by a COVID-19 outbreak – before round six and for a period of about five weeks.
That process was hastened on Saturday when Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced further suburban lockdowns in the state capital in response to another spike in new cases of the virus.
The clubs will enter hubs in Queensland and NSW and complete a 14-day quarantine, although they have been granted exemptions to train and play matches during that period of isolation.
The Magpies, who were defeated by Essendon on Friday night, and Hawks boarded a charter flight on Sunday morning.
Alastair Clarkson’s men will take on GWS at Giants Stadium in the final game of round five on Sunday evening before they settle into their NSW hub at Coogee’s Crowne Plaza hotel.
Collingwood will face Hawthorn at Giants Stadium on Friday night in round six before Nathan Buckley’s squad departs for Perth to share a hub with Geelong and local sides West Coast and Fremantle.
The Cats are set to arrive in Sydney on Sunday night, where they will set up in the Pullman at Hyde Park in the lead-up to Thursday night’s encounter with Brisbane at the SCG, which begins round six.
Carlton and St Kilda will fly out of Melbourne bound for Queensland on Sunday afternoon, while Melbourne will depart for NSW after their Sunday afternoon clash with Richmond at the MCG.
Western Bulldogs and the Bombers will leave for Queensland on Monday afternoon and will be based at the Mercure on the Gold Coast and the Mantra in Southport respectively.
