Fans who attend the Round 12 clash between the Crows and Collingwood should ‘duck’ if the Sherrin is booted into their section of the Adelaide Oval crowd.
That’s the advice of South Australia’s Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier following the contentious call to grant the Magpies an exemption to enter the state amid Melbourne’s latest COVID-19 lockdown.
The SA government’s decision is seen as controversial and Professor Spurrier’s bizarre instructions to fans on Wednesday did little to reassure concerned members of the community.
“We’re looking at the seating at the moment and of course we’re looking at the ball,” Spurrier said.
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“Because sometimes the ball, not that I’ve been to many football games, (but) I have noticed occasionally it does get kicked into the crowd.
“And we are working through the details at the moment of what that will mean but if you are at Adelaide Oval and the ball comes towards you my advice to you is just to duck and just do not touch that ball.”
Collingwood players will fly into Adelaide on a charter plane on Saturday morning and return to Melbourne that evening.
All travelling Magpies players and personnel were on Wednesday required to quarantine with their families and must return a negative COVID test before being cleared to play.
Both teams will be tested again 48 hours after the game, with Crows players required to isolate until they return a negative test result.
“I don’t think that’s it’s risky, I think this is negligible risk,” Professor Spurrier added.
“We have more risk from taking international travellers in our hotel quarantine system.”
