{"id":133046,"date":"2021-09-22T23:46:39","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T23:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=133046"},"modified":"2021-09-23T03:01:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T03:01:20","slug":"afls-high-stakes-mandatory-vaccination-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=133046","title":{"rendered":"AFL's high stakes mandatory vaccination battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran reporter Caroline Wilson<\/a> has revealed the AFL is facing some hurdles in their quest to get the league vaccinated ahead of next season.<\/p>\n

The AFL is yet to announce its stance on vaccine requirements and whether it will be mandatory for players.<\/p>\n

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan<\/a> told the West Australian yesterday it "would be difficult" to continue playing unless the competition was vaccinated, but also added: "If we can land where we don't even need to have a policy, that would be a pretty good outcome."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> AFL grand final 2021 Ultimate Guide: Everything you need to know<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Wilson revealed the AFL and the Players Association are in a battle to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations, with the latter not ready to tick off on the decision.<\/p>\n

"The AFL wants mandatory vaccinations," Wilson told Nine's Footy Classified<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Gillon<\/p>\n

"The last piece of the puzzle is the AFL Players Association, but they don't want to be the ones to mandate it.<\/p>\n

"The AFL is confident now that of the non-grand final clubs, all the others are now 80 per cent – had their first jab.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Wests Tigers chairman lifts lid on 'embarrassing' Michael Maguire saga<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"They've spoken to Indigenous groups, they've spoken to the women's players – all have different issues with vaccinations, but they're confident it will happen anyway."<\/p>\n

Outside of Australia, major sporting leagues such as the NFL, NBA and English Premier League have chosen not to mandate the vaccination, but have imposed restrictions on non-vaccinated players.<\/p>\n

But in Australia's NBL, which also hasn't mandated vaccination, a trend is emerging of unvaccinated players being turned away. The New Zealand Breakers earlier this week parted ways with star Tai Webster<\/a> due to his refusal to get the vaccine.<\/p>\n

\"Tai<\/p>\n

Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said players wouldn't be able to travel interstate if they turned down the vaccination.<\/p>\n

"You won't get on a plane, you won't be playing interstate for a start," McGuire said.<\/p>\n

"You won't get on a plane unless you're double-vaxxed."<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd believes players who aren't in the club's top five will have their contracts torn up.<\/p>\n

"That's what has me thinking – if you're a top-five player, the club could potentially cope with you missing a few interstate games," Lloyd said.<\/p>\n

\"Goodwin's<\/p>\n

"But if you're in the bottom percentage of players, It's career over, isn't it?"<\/p>\n

Responding to Lloyd, Wilson added: "I think so,"<\/p>\n

"I think it will become a story. There will be privacy issues and people won't want to talk about it.<\/p>\n

"They were going to make a decision on Monday and instead there was a bit of debate at the commission table."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran reporter Caroline Wilson has revealed the AFL is facing some hurdles in their quest to get the league vaccinated ahead of next season. The […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133046"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133048,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133046\/revisions\/133048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}