{"id":160235,"date":"2021-11-14T22:32:09","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T23:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=160235"},"modified":"2021-11-15T03:01:41","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T03:01:41","slug":"afl-great-roasts-stars-reason-for-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=160235","title":{"rendered":"AFL great roasts star's reason for retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL great Tim Watson says he doesn't respect Liam Jones' decision to retire<\/a> due to the code's vaccination mandate.<\/p>\n

Jones, who played 161 games between the Bulldogs and Blues, was contracted for next season and stood to earn about half a million dollars from Carlton, which he will now forfeit after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccination.<\/p>\n

Jones' retirement comes after the AFL made the decision to implement a vaccination mandate<\/a> for all players and staff.<\/p>\n

"I hope that people respect my decision and privacy \u2013 neither myself or my management team will be making any further comment on the matter," Jones said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Several of the AFL's leading voices were quick to react to the situation, with Watson declaring the 30-year-old's decision was a disservice to the community.<\/p>\n

\"AFL<\/p>\n

"I respect his privacy – I don't really respect his decision because there are no underlying medical issues here," Watson told SEN.<\/p>\n

"I don't even respect that (his right to make the decision) – we could all be unvaxxed, but we all get vaxxed for a very good reason because we're trying to do that right thing by each other as a society.<\/p>\n

"I wish him well in life, I don't wish him any harm in any way. But he's walked away from a lot and you can't get it back. I hope he understands what he's walking away from at this stage of his life."<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes said Jones' retirement will leave new coach Michael Voss with a major headache.<\/p>\n

Cornes said Jones had shown the ability to be a "top-five backman" on occasions.<\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n

"His combination with Jacob Weitering was really important," Cornes said.<\/p>\n

"At his best Liam Jones, he looked like a top-five backman in the game.<\/p>\n

"At his worst, he had some moments where your sort of shake your head and get a bit nervous when he has the footy in his hands.<\/p>\n

"Completely turned his career around. He was forward at the Western Bulldogs, a flaky forward, then one game moved into defence – from there he carved out a very nice career for himself. One that probably had three to four years left.<\/p>\n

"Carlton think they're in the premiership window… It's a huge blow on the field, particularly at this stage where you don't have a lot of room to replace him."<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nine AFL host Tony Jones questioned whether Jones' decision to opt against vaccination was exposing a privacy issue in the game.<\/p>\n

\"Liz\u00a0Ellis\u00a0defends\u00a0AFL's\u00a0ban\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0skinfold\u00a0test\"<\/p>\n

"The last thing you want to see is someone turning up with their bag and their boots, only to be told you're not allowed entry," Jones told Nine's Today.<\/em><\/p>\n

"From a supporter's point of view, if we as supporters are being told you can't come into the grounds unless your double vaccinated, then I think the onus is on the players putting on the show to do likewise.<\/p>\n

"Ninety-nine point nine per cent of them now have fallen into line now along with the rest of the community.<\/p>\n

"The other thing is… is there a privacy issue associated with this? There was a bit of conjecture last week when Liam Jones' name was revealed as to whether he deserved the right to that privacy. There are certainly good arguments on both sides there.<\/p>\n

"There might be other cases within the AFL ranks, whereby players are having similar issues at the moment – do I get the vaccination or do I stay true to my principles and not get the vaccination and therefore tear up my livelihood."<\/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":"

AFL great Tim Watson says he doesn't respect Liam Jones' decision to retire due to the code's vaccination mandate. Jones, who played 161 games between […]<\/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\/160235"}],"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=160235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160237,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160235\/revisions\/160237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}