You can't move to Perth. You can’t move to anywhere. The teams have too much Covid within them, let alone support staff. Perth is only a few weeks behind before the border jumpers have released too much omicron to be able to stop an outbreak.

Umm. Players will recover and come out of protocol. It's not like this will start tomorrow.

You do you understand what a bubble is right? There would be no interaction with the outside world — so no Covid theoretically. It’s not ideal from a lifestyle perspective, but that was the Orlando case study.

I believe WA (McGowan) will hold off his Feb 5th border reopening. It’s the prudent thing to do given cases ballooning elsewhere. I’m not saying everyone will like that.

The HUB will never be in Perth due to stupid primerier

If we accept 'the flood' will engulf everyone then WA will be weeks behind their eventual spikes in cases. In fact they won't open until February so their peak will be late February or March.

By that time most other states would have hopefully calmed down, which probably means most people got it and recovered and wondered what all the fuss was about.

Those avant-garde states will probably be the best place to have a hub or bubble.

I'll admit I don't know the difference between the two.

All this falls into pieces if there is another variant.

Players wouldn't have freedom of movement in Perth. They would be locked down hard, because they have come from a COVID infected area.
WA are just delaying the inevitable. At this point, we are lucky that most that are being infected it is with a Mild strain, that will hopefully give most some immunity over new strains.

A bubble won't happen due to the money lost last year. Games will be able to be start back up in the next week as most teams have been affected, and will have recovered, have enough players to reach the minimum and will no longer be required to isolate following close contact,

If you think about it, the Aus Open Tennis kind of mimics a hub/bubble environment. It's just too hard right now with travel and the uncertainties in each state.


Anon #683

Probably true, but hope not! Is VIC government funding the Melbourne Summer Set because of the cancelled tournaments elsewhere. Perfect time for McGowan (WA) to be "avant-grade" here!


Anon #684

Fair points. I just feel cramming games or incorporating arbitrary rules (Think minimum 8 players currently) for when a game goes ahead or adding additional replacement players is quite tricky and will result in a poor quality season from a league standpoint. Then, it could actually have an impact for the players looking to make the jump to the NBA next year, like the next stars.

Tough to see this continuing with the stop-start trajectory, while keeping it fair for all. Something needs to be implemented, even if short term.

I'm out of the loop with the AFL to be honest. Didn’t WA host the grand final or are you referring to something else?

NBL need to consider all options now. One game per round won't work.

I'm really curious as to what you think "avant garde" means.

If WA was going to delay the border opening, they'd have started making noise about it by now. Labor did some polling a few weeks back and 77% supported opening up. So they've obviously thought about it, but the poll's come back so decisively in favor that they're going ahead.

Can't wait to see everyone whine when there's suddenly a bunch of long term restrictions, which we've never had here.

Koberulz

The cycle of covid (omicron) news changes by the day, not the week. Making some noise about delaying the opening now, being a month out, will be redundant in 1-2 weeks. I understand what you're saying but WA being closed and isolated for the better part of two years with minimal cases and a functioning health system actually makes it look like McGowan is playing 4D chess. It’s obviously not for everyone, but a lot of West Australians probably don’t mind seeing as what is happening elsewhere and indeed globally.

Making some noise about delaying the opening now, being a month out, will be redundant in 1-2 weeks.

It's obviously not for everyone, but a lot of West Australians probably don’t mind

WAlians will lose their collective shit when borders open

Koberulz

Can't be bothered with this one, but since you’re so matter of fact, I’ll try my best.

Firstly, omicron is a truly dynamic situation. You could be right, and I could be wrong, but nobody truly knows.

What I do know is a poll three weeks ago in the early stage of the omicron outbreak is meaningless. What’s political suicide is opening up a border without the proper measures in place, some which are outside of a state governments control (e.g. rapid antigen test supply), and collapsing the health system leading to hospitalIzations and deaths. There’s plenty of commentary suggesting Queensland should have delayed their opening instead of proceeding and sticking to their opening date (like with WA as you suggest). You can see the escalation of cases and a failing health system the result of that decision. With NSW, and their unelected Premier Perrottet, they’ve clearly got mud on their face and have had to (reluctantly) put some restrictions in place (e.g. masks, elective surgeries suspended, banned dancing) because they wanted to so badly open up. That’s political suicide.

Delaying the reopening because WA health isn’t quite ready to manage that exponential wave in cases or to sensibly wait for increased supply of rapid testing, or yet, the upcoming Pfizer anti-viral (already approved in US and GB), or yet even an omicron and future variant effective vaccine is not political suicide. McGowan ran a $5B+ surplus whilst every other state ran a deficit last year. The government will be able to handle the "backlash" if he were to reschedule the opening. He’s playing with house money in hoops terms.

So in short, yes, yes you can announce a Feb 5 re-opening date and on Feb 4 change or update the plan because the pandemic world we live requires a change in strategy.

It's Saturday night and I see the despite the crisis the following leagues have managed to have a match on:

A-League
AFLW
BBL

that despite*

Outdoor events likely a factor?

Two of the three involve teams from different states as well.

Outdoor events likely a factor?

If there was consideration of delay, they'd be throwing around "pending medical advice" and "COVID is unpredictable" and so on, not just pumping the date.

Yes, you can make the decision on Feb 4, but you have to acknowledge in the lead up that it's not set in stone.

If they run another poll that finds overwhelming support for staying closed they'll change course, but at present they're clearly pretty set on their opening date.

" McGowan ran a $5B+ surplus whilst every other state ran a deficit last year."

I imagine he should be giving a big thank you to the eastern states for taking the hit to keep the national economy rolling so WA can get its precious GST to fund its hermit kingdom.

Not sure how that became the subject. Also not sure how you managed to get it so wrong.

Once the borders open perth will get smashed with covid as well.

West Australians should all be receiving dividends like the Alaskans do.

And delaying the opening will only delay the inevitable

No, it won't, it will give people time to get triple-vaxxed.

I just want to preface this. I'll get my booster next month when eligible but boosters ain’t doing shit against stopping the spread. You will get it. Vax will just reduce the severity, so delaying the opening of the borders ain’t doing shit

The booster gets effectiveness from around 30% to around 75%. That's a massive difference.

Learn to read.

How many people were triple-vaxxed when I made that comment?

I see Jeremy Loeliger is a member of these boards, if I'm to go off NBL’s messaging thanking fans given this period (of few NBL games) during the Brisbane game and on their IG. Ok probably not, but timing seems uncanny.

I just hope they’ve got a Plan B and C, and not banking on things going back to normal once teams have exited protocols. But I do back them, they’ve done a solid job since the pandemic started all things considered.

Looking back at threads when the pandemic hit and seeing how many times penis breath KR was wrong. This will age just as poorly as those.

Came to their senses, thankfully.

Good luck Wildcats playing at home now

Chances that national league-caliber basketball teams qualify for the "Specialist skills not available in WA" exemption?

I'm not 100% giving up just yet, but it doesn't look good for home games.

Ok, he just specifically addressed the sport question, and now I'm 99.9% giving up on home games.
:(

Koberulz

Next time you make a case for something, remember this thread.

I told ya so.

Koberulz's posts read like Iate-night comedy.

"PoLiTiCaL SuIcIdE"

This is really bad luck for Perth.

But they would have hoped for the best and prepared for the worst when they left.

I know the #1 rule is never count them out, but this is a perfect storm of events that could end the streak.

- No Gleeson, new system (which is inferior).
- No home court for the rest of the season.
- New management, unknown culture.
- Cotton's efficiency is very low, for him.

I don't think point four belongs on that list, I think it's a direct consequence of point one.

We're definitely not trying for Covid zero here.
It's in the community now. Had this been 6 months ago there would have been lockdown measures as a result of the community spread, but there aren't this time.

Right now it's purely about the economy and the capacity of the hospital system. It's not about deaths anymore, since the vax rate is now good.

But with the difference in outcomes between double vax and boosters, I can see why this latest postponement happened. In the last 2 weeks booster numbers have been shooting up fast, so I think it makes sense to delay the opening a bit to give those numbers a chance to get a lot higher. It sucks, but it seems like the smart call overall.

Personally I think the mistake was not nominating a new date, although there would have been downsides to doing that as well.

At the end of the day most of the annoying things about this postponement - including Cats & Lynx home games - are minor "first world problems" compared to the bigger picture. As I look eastward right now it doesn't seem like rainbows & gold dust.

There's a bunch of exemptions now, so anyone who really needs to come in can do so.

You said their will be no basketball played last year worldwide.

Personally I think the mistake was not nominating a new date, although there would have been downsides to doing that as well.

Looks like Perth won't have anymore home games. They have to suck it up just like the New Zealand Breakers. Whoever voted for Mark McGowan are idiots. Perth won’t make finals, I’m saying it right now if they don’t get anymore home games.

The funniest thing about the language KR was they kept saying their "safe transition " and we will do it properly and better than the eastern states once we hit 90%. The eastern states are at 94/95%, how in hell was 90% going to allow for a better opening. Dudes a moron

Looks like Perth won't have anymore home games. They have to suck it up just like the New Zealand Breakers. Whoever voted for Mark McGowan are idiots. Perth won't make finals, I’m saying it right now if they don’t get anymore home games.

yes, Victoria and NSW have had high case over the last few weeks, however most of them with Omnicon strain, are not serious illness and you recover quickly.

for those wanting to know 'with COVID' - 'from COVID' =

well here is the England and Wales analysis courtesy of a freedom of information request in recent days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UHvwWWcjYw

for those not wanting to watch the video, 'from' is 1/8 of 'with'

yes COVID is the straw that broke the camels back in many cases, but fair to observe that would those that died with (excluding gun shots etc) would they have died from COVID if they didnt have their comorbidity??

The comorbidities don't stop existing just because they're inconvenient for your dumb argument.

Koberulez

" The biggest mistake was sticking so firmly to Feb 5 for the past few weeks. You could see this coming a mile out, and the language never changed. There was no hint this was coming until it did, even though it's been obvious for weeks that it needed to happen."

Well that's what we all said a couple weeks ago. Just scroll up.

You are a walking hypocrite.

I'm a hypocrite for holding the same position now as I held previously?

I don't think that's what that word means.

Dude, lose the god-complex.

Are you just pulling out words at random now?

What are you on about.

You were so clearly of the opinion that WA borders were opening February 5 based on polls and other nonsense. Now suddenly you're parroting exactly what we said and now you "hold the same position", and say it’s “been obvious for weeks that it needed to happen”.

Are you delusional, your receipts are there for everyone to see. I’m just calling you out.

My position then was that while it was obvious the border should remain closed, the government was sticking far too firmly to their Feb 5 date, and it was completely moronic.

My position now is that last night's announcement was the right call, but failing to soften their language was completely moronic.

There is no contradiction there.

not sure how it is a dumb argument?

NSW Kerry Chant came out and claimed a great result, we only killed 3 tender age children and injured a further 106 from our 5-11 vaccination program. Yes total injections were over 300k, but owning up to killing kids with a vaccine is disgraceful especially when kids are not at risk generally.

They continued on to explain out of 36 deaths that 3 were unvaxxed, only 3 were under 65 but had serious comorbidity (2 of those are unvaxxed)

then went on to explain ICU population. 141 people in ICU. 1 was only partially vaxxed, the rest were at least double

Their takeaway and public advice based on these numbers, is that it is super important to get a 3rd dose......

dont let the fact that there are zero unvaxxed in ICU get in the way of a good story.

fear of something that is very minimal in impact to healthy people under 65 is crazy and injecting a vaccine into you which is near useless or doubles you chance of contracting the virus its is meant to protect you from (you can google canada and denmark stats), even McGowan last night cited the vax was only 4% protection with just 2 doses. (sadly that is 3 months after does, 4 months you go negative)

time for government to come clean, protect the vulnerable as should have been their course of action from the beginning and leave the rest of society to make their own decision like they do with the flu

all those with vax injuries and degraded immune systems have to live with it now and potential consequences for the rest of their lives for a vax that most of them never needed.

get away from MSM and do your own research, plenty of it out there.

back to basketball......

sadly Wildcats are now consigned to life on the road and a pseudo home in any state that gives them a home. good news is that all other states are open to each other so NBL should find a way to reschedule, plus bonus of saving teams travelling to Perth so means they can likely compress schedule to see out season if required.

Ah yes, Koberulz the type of player who cherry-picks on the court and evidently off the court in forums. Never wrong, but always right.

I'm not about to admit I'm wrong when I'm not wrong.

Random, almost everything you just said is completely false.

Well I don't expect a narcissist to do that at all, since you can just gaslight all you want. Must feel bad to get called out.

But I'm not wrong. I'm on record well before last night saying opening up would be a terrible idea.

not the most objective site but easier than sending you multiple links for hte news videos, but the videos linked are real and clearly walk through the 'completely false' stats I listed out

https://xyz.net.au/2022/01/vaccines-cause-nsw-its-deadliest-day/

"NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant did not author the tweet or the Instagram post attributed to her and the information contained in both of them is incorrect."
The trouble with folks believing fake tweets, is twisting the way folks think and behave.

"get away from MSM and do your own research, plenty of it out there."

Nooooo, “do your own research” = ignore the experts and delve into a crazy f'ed up world of weird cult personalities making up conspiracies and nonsense arguments that don’t hold up against reality.

Clearly you’re one of the vulnerable ones to conspiracies and scams. Stay safe mate.

Stick to MSM, avoid the weird conspiracy shit. Weird conspiracy people are almost never going to be those in a field of science.

Perhaps stick to listening to people in science about science!

I mean, MSM can be hit and miss (7 Perth led with "families upset they can't reunite" last night, ahead of "Perth hospitals thankful they won't have to deal with armageddon"), but certainly mainstream experts are going to be far more reliable than Jenny on Facebook.

Also worth noting with adverse incidents in vaccine trials, it includes every adverse incident that occurs. Some are vaccine-related, some are mere coincidence. One of the adverse incidents listed in one of the US studies of the vaccine on under-fives was "ingestion of a penny", because kids are morons.