Jack Riewoldt and Dylan Grimes have tipped a bucket on the AFL and media over an incident at the team hotel prior to the Port game.
Richmond players feared they had been exposed to another major COVID-19 protocol breach in August last year when their Adelaide hotel took in a group of homeless people to provide them with emergency accommodation.
In a footy panel show published on YouTube, premiership stars Dylan Grimes and Jack Riewoldt detailed how their hotel lobby was “filled with homeless people” only hours before their Round 11 21-point loss to Port Adelaide last season.
All clubs were under strict rules to avoid any contact with the general public or anyone outside of their bubble, leaving the Tigers’ players shocked to see the other guests at close proximity in their team hotel.
The Herald Sun is not saying the Tigers broke any rules, but instead found themselves caught up in a mix-up which could have potentially forced the group into up to 14 days of hard quarantine and rocked their premiership campaign a month before finals.
The incident happened on August 8, about two weeks after Brooke Cotchin, the wife of Richmond captain Trent Cotchin, broke AFL rules when she visited a Gold Coast beauty salon and put an image on Instagram.
Richmond received a second strike in September when players Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones left their hub to have a night out on the Gold Coast ending in a fight out the front of a kebab shop.
Grimes described the situation in their Adelaide hotel as “bizarre” and suggested the AFL had kept the incident quiet.
The Tigers had just flown into Adelaide off a four-day break for the game against Port.
“It (hotel) felt like a hospital which had been abandoned. It was really old and it was like, ‘This is weird’,” Grimes said.
“We came down from a meeting or a team walk or something and the hotel lobby was filled with homeless people.
“In Adelaide, if it gets above or below a certain temperature the hotel opens up as a homeless shelter.
“I don’t know how this never got out and the AFL have done an amazing job of covering this up (because) at this stage we were wearing masks coming out of the airport, to the airport, to the bus.
“We weren’t allowed to come into contact with anyone, but next thing you know we were crammed like sardines into a lift.
“We were like ‘How does this happen?’.
“We were so sterile for so long and now we are staying in a homeless shelter right before a game.”
Grimes said he thought the situation would become a big issue given the importance placed on the clubs’ quarantine rules and the players’ and staff safety.
Players left their families to spend up to four months in hubs in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia to help save the season as Richmond overcame two quarantine breaches to win an extraordinary premiership last year.
“We had just been done for the Brooke Cotchin thing, there was something else, and they (AFL) were all over us,” Grimes said.
“I was like ‘The AFL are going to cop it for this. Sit back and wait and watch the media roll in (because) Richmond was staying in a homeless shelter’ but crickets, (there was) nothing (about it).”
MORE TO COME
Richmond stars reveal COVID-19 close call in Adelaide hotel during 2020 season (paywalled)
Richmond players feared they had been exposed to another major COVID-19 protocol breach in August last year when their Adelaide hotel took in a group of homeless people to provide them with emergency accommodation.
In a footy panel show published on YouTube, premiership stars Dylan Grimes and Jack Riewoldt detailed how their hotel lobby was “filled with homeless people” only hours before their Round 11 21-point loss to Port Adelaide last season.
All clubs were under strict rules to avoid any contact with the general public or anyone outside of their bubble, leaving the Tigers’ players shocked to see the other guests at close proximity in their team hotel.
The Herald Sun is not saying the Tigers broke any rules, but instead found themselves caught up in a mix-up which could have potentially forced the group into up to 14 days of hard quarantine and rocked their premiership campaign a month before finals.
The incident happened on August 8, about two weeks after Brooke Cotchin, the wife of Richmond captain Trent Cotchin, broke AFL rules when she visited a Gold Coast beauty salon and put an image on Instagram.
Richmond received a second strike in September when players Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones left their hub to have a night out on the Gold Coast ending in a fight out the front of a kebab shop.
Grimes described the situation in their Adelaide hotel as “bizarre” and suggested the AFL had kept the incident quiet.
The Tigers had just flown into Adelaide off a four-day break for the game against Port.
“It (hotel) felt like a hospital which had been abandoned. It was really old and it was like, ‘This is weird’,” Grimes said.
“We came down from a meeting or a team walk or something and the hotel lobby was filled with homeless people.
“In Adelaide, if it gets above or below a certain temperature the hotel opens up as a homeless shelter.
“I don’t know how this never got out and the AFL have done an amazing job of covering this up (because) at this stage we were wearing masks coming out of the airport, to the airport, to the bus.
“We weren’t allowed to come into contact with anyone, but next thing you know we were crammed like sardines into a lift.
“We were like ‘How does this happen?’.
“We were so sterile for so long and now we are staying in a homeless shelter right before a game.”
Grimes said he thought the situation would become a big issue given the importance placed on the clubs’ quarantine rules and the players’ and staff safety.
Players left their families to spend up to four months in hubs in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia to help save the season as Richmond overcame two quarantine breaches to win an extraordinary premiership last year.
“We had just been done for the Brooke Cotchin thing, there was something else, and they (AFL) were all over us,” Grimes said.
“I was like ‘The AFL are going to cop it for this. Sit back and wait and watch the media roll in (because) Richmond was staying in a homeless shelter’ but crickets, (there was) nothing (about it).”
MORE TO COME
