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Airport chaos as Victorian A-League clubs stranded in Melbourne

australian associated press
·3-min read
Besart Berisha, pictured here on the plane before being forced to stay in Melbourne.
Besart Berisha and his Western United teammates were forced off the plane. Image: Getty/Instagram

The A-League season was thrown into fresh chaos on Monday night when Victoria's three top-flight teams failed to make it across the border in time.

The remainder of the season is now at the whim of the NSW government after Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City and Western United players did not leave Victoria before the midnight Monday deadline for Melbourne residents.

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The three A-League clubs scrambled on Monday night, getting players and staff to the airport in a bid to fly to Canberra.

They boarded the plane, only for the flight to be cancelled due to poor visibility at Melbourne Airport, leaving them stranded on the tarmac.

Western United captain Alessandro Diamanti recorded the eventful night on his Instagram page - including footage of teammate Andrew Durante loading bags into a car and of players and staff sitting on the plane.

Alessandro Diamanti, pictured here documenting the dramas at Melbourne Airport on social media.
Alessandro Diamanti documented the dramas on social media. Images: Instagram

The three clubs had originally planned to fly out on a charter plane on Tuesday - before the full Victoria-NSW border closure from midnight Tuesday.

Football Federation Australia will now seek an exemption from the NSW government for players and staff to get out of the state.

“As a result, we will now begin the process to seek exemptions from the NSW Government to allow the teams to enter NSW for them to continue their season,” A-League boss Greg O'Rourke said.

“If we find it necessary to revise the match schedule we will do so accordingly and will announce once confirmed, however at this time the schedule remains the same.”

Victory and United are due to restart the A-League season on July 16, with United then scheduled to play City on July 20.

AFL players get out of Victoria on time

Other professional football codes had made earlier moves to get their teams out of Victoria amid the state's coronavirus spike.

The 10 AFL clubs departed for NSW and Queensland across Sunday and Monday, the NRL's Melbourne Storm have been out of Victoria for almost two weeks and Super Rugby's Melbourne Rebels moved to Canberra on June 26.

However four Richmond premiership stars did not travel to the AFL's Queensland quarantine hub, although injured forward Tom Lynch has been cleared to join the Tigers on the Gold Coast.

Essendon Bombers players, pictured here boarding a flight out of Melbourne Airport.
Essendon Bombers players board a flight out of Melbourne Airport on Monday. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

The former Suns captain will fly north on Monday night after having surgery on a fractured hand following Richmond's breakthrough win on Sunday against Melbourne.

But the Tigers' first victory since the AFL restart came at a major cost, with the club losing reigning best-and-fairest winner Dion Prestia and ruckman Toby Nankervis to syndesmosis ankle ligament injuries.

The pair will recover in Melbourne and the club say they will know more after surgery on Monday about how much of the season they will miss.

Alex Neal-Bullen, pictured here preparing to board a flight out of Melbourne.
Alex Neal-Bullen of the Demons is seen preparing to board a flight out of Melbourne. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Syndesmosis injuries requiring surgery have been known to keep players out for as long as three months.

As well as injured absentees Prestia and Nankervis, the Tigers have confirmed Bachar Houli and Shane Edwards have opted out of the northern hub adventure for family reasons.

“We send our congratulations to Bachar and (wife) Rouba for the safe arrival of their new son, Mohamed, and wish Shane and his partner Samantha well as they prepare for the arrival of their first child,” Richmond's football performance manager Tim Livingstone said.