Saturday night's AFL match between Fremantle and North Melbourne will be played behind closed doors at Optus Stadium after Perth was plunged into a snap three-day COVID lockdown.
Western Australia's Premier Mark McGowan put the city into the lockdown after it emerged a COVID positive man spent five days moving freely about the city before flying to Melbourne and testing positive to the virus.
North Melbourne flew out of Melbourne for the Dockers match on Friday afternoon, arriving in Perth about an hour before McGowan's press conference at 4.15pm local time.
There were initial reports the match could be postponed or moved to Monday evening - before it was confirmed the game would go ahead with only players and officials in the venue.
The AFL is set to provide a further update on Friday afternoon.
"We have an emerging and serious issue we need to update the community on," McGowan told reporters at his press conference
"This is a fast evolving situation and we are acting on information that has just come to information that has just come to light.
"I know this is hard to take and I wish we didn't need to do this. But we can’t take any chances
"I know this three-day short lockdown is very difficult. But I hope we can keep it to three days only.
"We need to go back to what we know best. We need to keep ourselves safe.
"I know for many Western Australians this will be disruptive. My thanks goes to everyone for their patience and understanding.”
West Coast landed in Melbourne on Thursday evening ahead of their game against Geelong at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday afternoon - however there is no word on whether the Eagles will have to quarantine at their accommodation before the match.
Fremantle and West Coast are scheduled to meet in a Western derby at Optus Stadium in round seven.
