'There's a lot of touching and hugging in football': Top WA medico slam dunks AFL
The importance of sport boosting the morale levels of West Australians amid the COVID-19 pandemic pales into insignificance compared to the health of the public at large.
That's the view of the Australian Medical Association of WA, whose president on Thursday urged local authorities to resist requests to resume professional sporting competitions under any terms other than their own, as the AFL hones in on deals with states aiming to resume the reduced 17-game season.
WA Premier Mark McGowan wants Optus Stadium and neighbouring Crown Perth to be an AFL hub but the league is likely to go another way after national cabinet outcomes on Friday.
Dr Andrew Miller urged patience.
"[The AFL] is not an essential industry in the same way as us keeping the lights on with oil, gas and mining, because that's what's paying for our health infrastructure," he said.
"Although it's very important, sports – I don't want to underrate its place – it's not as important as those essential industries.
"If we can learn from those essential industries... how to do it safely, how to get the workers in and out... then hopefully that will also help us get the AFL, the WAFL and all the other sports people are interested in, back up and running in a sneaky way so the virus doesn't get us."
Dr Miller's comments came as West Coast and Fremantle met with WA's Police Commissioner on Thursday ahead of the national cabinet meeting on Friday, when an easing of border restrictions, among other containment measures, will be up for discussion.
WA's hard stance on maintaining current regulations would likely place West Coast and Fremantle players in Victoria or the Gold Coast for several weeks when the season resumes, as the league desires a more traditional home-and-away fixture to restart the reduced season, with players, club and league officials to be flown on charter planes to play matches.
Dr Miller said there was much analysis to be done on the effect of interstate travel from essential workers in other industries before WA relented to the lure of AFL.
"You can't tell if they're asymptomatic carriers: are they transferring to each other on the aeroplane, what kind of testing is accurate enough for them to come and go," he said.
The psychological benefits of sport might have to come to us in a slightly different way right now.
Dr Andrew Miller, AMA WA president
"While it's important to give people hope that we'll reinvent the game somehow, I would respect the idea that it's too early that we'll have big groups of people coming in and out (of the state).
"Particularly those who are highly motivated to be there, so that if they do have minor symptoms, they're likely to shrug it off.
"You also get a lot of contact between the teams when they're together. There's a lot of touching and hugging in football. It's part of the game."
Dr Miller said caution was needed to prove regimes where teams were on the move were as safe as hubs.
"The worst thing we can do is deny the facts, which are the disease can be spread this way. I think the psychological benefits of sport might have to come to us in a slightly different way at the moment," he said.
"It is important and I think people are adapting. Australians are amazing. The way they've not only been adapting to these lock-down situations... accepting it as the sensible thing to do... but also reaching out to other people."