Dome and co must be working overtime with the APL. No point visa players doing 2 weeks MIQ in NZ and then another 2 weeks in Aus. Which MIQ system has the most openings NZ or Aus (presumably going to WA, SA or QLD)? Can a visa player that does 2 weeks MIQ in NZ, then fly to WA/QLD/SA and bypass doing 2 weeks more MIQ? Can the Nix's Wellington contingent (say when at Level 2) fly to WA/QLD/SA without having to do MIQ there? All Blacks have just flown to Perth without any MIQ required.
Where in Aus, will Nix base themselves for start of the season? WA, SA & Tassie lowest risk. Who going to pay for all the extra costs of another relocation?
So many moving parts. Sympathy for the club and owners. At least I think is some chance the team will be back in NZ by Christmas, but that will wholly depend on the NZ Govt granting exemptions for fully vaccination Australian A League teams to fly in/out of NZ without MIQ. Breakers will be in the same boat, and international cricket teams coming to NZ as well over the summer.
https://www.wellingtonphoenix.com/news/catching-coach-ufuk-talayHow has the Covid situation in both New Zealand and Australia affected your ability to recruit new players for next season and build a team?
The hardest thing has been able to sign the visa players, the overseas-based players, to actually get them into the country.
You know I was supposed to fly into New Zealand in early July and ended up getting in the country – and I’m very grateful to have gotten into the country – in early August. So there are no special conditions for the Club, we have to sit there and try and book our MIQ spots [like everyone else] to get into the country as well.
At the moment we’ve got Nicholas Pennington who’s still in Italy, he’s got an exemption to come into the country but not an MIQ spot, so we’ve been trying to get him over here as soon as we can as well. In that regard we’re don’t get any special conditions, we’re just like the general public; we go in, we try and book a spot and if we get in, we get in.
So I think that’s been the most difficult part of recruiting players, more so with the visa players.
The fans want to see who we’re bringing in, the new names coming into the team that add a lot of value to our Club. So as I said before the hardest part has been getting them into the country, whether it’s through Australia or straight through into New Zealand.
And while that hinders us a bit, we’re in no rush with that; once we have a clearer picture of what the season looks like for us, then we can decide what we want to do with players.