Professional athletes in Victoria will be required to receive their first COVID-19 vaccine dose by October 15 and their second by November 26 in order to train and play.
On Friday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed all authorised workers in Melbourne and regional Victoria would need to be vaccinated by those timelines in order to continue working on site.
Victoria’s extensive list of authorised workers includes “professional or high-performance sportsperson, workers that support the safe running of that person’s professional sport, and public broadcast personnel necessary for broadcasting the professional sport”.
“Yes, it does (apply to professional athletes),” Andrews said on Friday afternoon.
“I expect there’ll be a conversation, for instance, with the AFL, where the AFL will be informed, on behalf of all their clubs, that if you want to go back to preseason training in a month’s time or so, you will need to be double-vaxxed, as an authorised worker.
“Even after we get to 80 per cent (double-dosed) and the authorisations are no longer there, the mandate, the rule, the Chief Health Officer direction will stay in place because cases will still be an issue then.”
AFL teams begin their staggered returns to preseason in November, with the Western Bulldogs recently confirming their entire squad had received their first vaccine dose while AFLW players are currently in preseason training.
Melbourne’s A-League Men and A-League Women teams are both in preseason training ahead of their November 19 and December 3 season start dates, while the NBL and WNBL are scheduled to tip off in November.
Super Rugby’s Rebels and the NRL’s Storm will also kick off their preseason in the coming months.
There should be little short-term impact on the state’s cricketers.
Cricket Australia (CA) is hoping to finalise arrangements for Victoria’s male squad to depart and quarantine in another state soon, ensuring their Sheffield Shield campaign can start.
Female cricketers from Melbourne have already started their quarantine stint in Tasmania ahead of the WBBL, which begins on October 14.
International players were able to access the COVID-19 vaccine earlier this year, while there is unlikely to be any domestic or international games in Melbourne until December.
None of Australia’s major sporting codes have implemented mandatory coronavirus vaccination rules yet, though the NBL’s New Zealand Breakers recently parted ways with Tai Webster and the Illawarra Hawks released Travis Trice after those players were unwilling to receive the vaccine.
AAP
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