The GIANTS can confirm that an application to reschedule Sunday’s round two match against the Adelaide Thunderbirds under Netball Australia’s COVID-19 contingency framework has been declined.
The GIANTS currently have six players unavailable for Sunday’s match after testing positive for COVID. Two further players who missed last week’s match with COVID are yet to be medically cleared to return.
After a team has exhausted players from their own squads, they have access to a COVID supplementary player list from other teams and states to top-up as required. The GIANTS are currently working through this list.
Of the GIANTS’ squad of 18, contracted players Sophie Dwyer, Jamie-Lee Price and Amy Parmenter have been ruled out of Sunday’s match with COVID, along with training partners Jemma Donoghue, Eliza Burton and Nat Sligar.
Amy Sligar, who missed the round one match against the Swifts, returned to training with the team on Thursday for the first time since leaving isolation but is yet to be medically cleared to play.
Lauren Moore, who also missed round one, will come out of isolation three days before Sunday’s match. Under the protocols, Moore is unable to re-join the team environment until Saturday.
Of the 10 remaining players in the squad, April Brandley was only medically cleared to play half of round one’s match against the Swifts after managing an achilles injury across pre-season while two training partners are managing injuries.
The GIANTS’ team for round two is scheduled to be submitted to Netball Australia on Thursday.
Executive General Manager of GIANTS Netball, Tim Underwood, said:
“This is an incredibly challenging situation for our club but as we know with COVID, we need to adapt. We have continued to face COVID disruptions over the past 24 months and we’ve shown a strong ability to adapt to any challenge thrown our way. I can assure our members and fans that the players who travel to Adelaide for Sunday’s match will stand united and wear the orange dress with pride.”
