Following last week’s announcement that four Coburg FC players could be nominated by Brisbane Lions as covid contingency topup AFL players in 2022, the Coburg Football Club now has the delight to share who those players will be.
After discussions between Brisbane and Coburg officials, Brisbane have nominated Coburg Co-Captain and VFL Team of the Year Captain in 2021 Peter McEvoy, star forward Sam Lowson, midfielder Charlie Thompson and 2021 VFL Team of the Year Centre Half Back Jack Maibaum to be on their 20-man Covid contingency player list.
AFL rules state that in 2022 only, if Brisbane Lions have less than 28 available players to choose from due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19, Brisbane can call up a maximum of two of these four nominated Coburg players each week to play an AFL game for Brisbane regardless of where the AFL game is being played.
The Brisbane Lions AFL Covid contingency player list has a total of 20 players on it with 12 being from their own VFL player list, four from Coburg and another four players from Port Melbourne.
Upon learning of this news, Coburg CEO Sebastian Spagnuolo said –
“This is outstanding news for Peter, Sam, Charlie and Jack and for the club and although we wish that the covid pandemic was well and truly a thing of the past, we are also very supportive of these players getting an AFL callup should the opportunity present itself. In 2022 the AFL and VFL season must go on and teams will be forced to field a healthy team, so we would be proud and excited to provide Coburg players so that Brisbane can get through any covid interruptions.”
Regarding the four players nominated by Brisbane, Spagnuolo said “To be acknowledged as being an AFL-ready player by a strong AFL team like Brisbane is a tremendous achievement and we are so happy for our players that have been nominated.”
“Jack, Sam and Charlie each attracted AFL club interest in 2021, so we’re not surprised with their nominations and whilst some people may be surprised that the soon to be 31 year old Peter McEvoy has been nominated, internally, we aren’t surprised at all because he’s the best contested mark in the VFL, in 2021 he was having his best year of VFL football and is in great condition and form already this preseason.”
About the club’s dealings with Brisbane and the AFL, Spagnuolo said “Communication from Brisbane has been fantastic and we’ll continue to work with them on ways that these Coburg players can be integrated into their AFL program at times, especially if they are in Melbourne for a training session leading to an AFL game for example.”
The AFL have been transparent with us and the other VFL club’s the whole way and we feel that they showed great respect to our clubs and the competition. Brad Scott, Jennie Loughnan and Laura Kane listened to our club’s views and took them into account which is great and we look forward to working with them further in 2022.”
This Friday night, Coburg completes it’s 2022 VFL season preparations with a practice match at Highgate, Craigieburn against the strong Werribee team. The game starts at 7pm and all Coburg members are encouraged to attend.
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