Simon, when were you told of the plan to relocate?
Initial discussions happened in and around the Premier's press conference last night. The reality is, at seven o'clock Perth time last night we were planning to play Carlton at Optus Stadium this Saturday at 5.40pm local time and everything was heading towards that, and then an hour or two later it was clearly a different prospect that we were facing, so there were some initial discussions last night. Clearly, we still look to maintain the status quo, if we could. But clearly it became incredibly difficult once the lockdown was known and then not having any surety about being able to play the game as scheduled.
 
What sort of options did you feel like you had and potentially presented to the AFL to try and keep that game at home?
We've been working really closely, as you can imagine for the last 15 months, with Western Australian Police, WA Health and the Premier's department who have all been incredibly helpful and accommodating in trying to make sure that we get everything we can away as scheduled. So we've done a fair bit of work understanding the way that the Bulldogs have come in previously to play West Coast last weekend. We'd had real success in working with those authorities to get the fact that that sort of thing could happen, that we could play a game in quarantine conditions, under lockdown and the like so there was that capability, but when it came to trying to get absolute assurance that regardless of the lockdown scenario if it were to continue beyond Friday, which obviously we all hope doesn't come to pass, we could still play the game, we just couldn't get that clarity and confirmation.

What have you been told about where or when you’ll play and where are you flying to?
We’re flying to Melbourne, so that's the immediate stop and we'll be certainly there for the immediate short term to train and prepare for this weekend's game. We're still working through the venue for our game this weekend against Carlton. There's a number of options clearly, most prominently Melbourne and potentially down the road in Geelong and obviously Tasmania. We play there the following week so there's some logic to that as well too. To answer in short, we haven't got it confirmed as yet. It's our home game so the AFL are certainly giving us as much opportunity to choose the venue as possible, depending on limitations of course, but we're working through that at the moment we're just not quite there yet.
 
How would you feel about playing Carlton in Tasmania this weekend?
If the circumstances require it. We've certainly got an approach of anywhere anytime, there's a logic to that because we play down there the following week against the Hawks which is scheduled. That's certainly a live and viable option and one we're considering at the moment and if that comes to pass as the option that we go for, then I think that's something we're comfortable with.
 
What sort of crowd were you expecting for the Carlton game and what's the cost of losing this game going to be to the club?
We hadn't had any sales yet, so obviously it’s difficult to get a feel. We were planning to go on sale last Thursday, which was original on sale date for us. Just knowing the market, knowing the situation, looking ahead at the weather, which was looking reasonably good here in Perth on Saturday afternoon and the fact that we had won two in a row, it was all lining up pretty favourably. I would’ve thought low to mid 40’s from a crowd attendance perspective. When you think about how that flows on from a financial viewpoint, it's significant. There are the elements of the ticket sales themselves, the catering rebates and everything that goes into it, and then obviously the imposition to our members who have been phenomenal to date that unfortunately don't get to Optus Stadium on Saturday night. It's a significant one and hard to put an exact number on it but it'll be large.

There's no change of a makeup home game?
Well at this point but who knows where this thing is going to go in the next six to eight weeks. I think we all hope that Sydney gets it under control and Queensland is okay and Melbourne maintains its current record and Perth gets back on track. If that's the case then we might get back to some normality, but who knows maybe Perth and Melbourne shape up as really strong options and we might play some more games here. At this point in time, what are we planning against and certainly budgeting and forecasting against is that it's a lost home game from us and we will be looking to move towards Geelong and make sure that happens, but you never know where it might go with prudent planning and that's what we've done over the last 18 months to be conservative in that sense.
 
Will you take your whole squad?
We’ll take our whole squad a part from a small cohort of our long-term injuries, essentially the guys who aren't going to play again this year. It was deemed more effective that they stay back here as exemptions that allowed for treatment, rehab and training. We'll take our entire squad. A part from those guys.
 
When do you expect to know for sure when and where your game is played?
This evening or at the very latest maybe tomorrow morning. We're obviously having some discussions working through it from our perspective as to what our preference is and then seeing if we can finalise it from there.

How long do you think you might have to pack for, is it two weeks?
There's an element of planning for the worst and hope for the best. I think the reality is we play over on the east coast again for Hawthorn as scheduled on Saturday week, which was the original plan, assuming it's a Saturday and if we’re playing Saturday this weekend. So at least that time frame, but obviously with the capacity for a little bit more. There's some positive news out of Perth today, Melbourne seems to be tracking okay so in an ideal world, I think it's play Carlton, play Hawthorn and get back to Perth in readiness for Geelong, but knowing that it might potentially go for a little bit longer than that.
 
How tough is it for a lot of players with young families leaving home in a pretty difficult unknown sort of situation?
It's a really good question and a really good point, as well as a good opportunity for me to acknowledge our players and staff who are heading over east, and most particularly their partners and families and the like, because they're the ones impacted the most. We're incredibly fortunate as a club and we've done a lot of work on being incredibly connected to each other and engaged. We're calling upon them again in that sense, so it's a difficult scenario, one that we just have to try it on a case-by-case basis. We've got absolute empathy and understanding if it's difficult for us or it’s difficult for some others to go or continue to go. However, at this stage we're taking a full party and I’m just incredibly grateful for the support we get from our significant others and family members.
 
You said you had a preferred position on venue, can you say what that is and also, would you like a longer break because of the travel burden?
No, I didn't say we have a preferred venue at this stage. What I said was that we're working through all the different options and once we arrive on a preferred venue, we'll look to try and lock that away. There’s obviously a fair bit of consultation with the coach in particular, the senior leadership group, playing players and the like. We've just come off a decent break, so I think the playing group are pretty comfortable understanding when travelling on a Tuesday, which is unusual, but in essence we usually travel two days before a game, we’re now travelling four days, so I'd have to consult with the experts but I don't think there's a concern in terms of requiring a further break.
 
Are you going to try and set up base someone rather than travelling around and constantly changing venues?
I think so, we'll look to have as much continuity as we can. As I said we’ll be based in Melbourne for the immediate period and whilst we established where the game is going to be played this weekend. Once we've got an understanding exactly and can confirm that, we'll make some decisions on whether we stay there or make some moves. It's an interesting environment, there's a lot of AFL clubs based in Victoria who are getting phone calls from interstate clubs looking for training venues and gyms and the like. I'm just glad we opened up our doors for some of the Melbourne teams last year, because they’re repaying the favour which is good.