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'Sick of it': Footy great slams Premier's 'petty' comments

Pictured here, WA Premier Mark McGowan and Essendon great Matthew Lloyd.
Mark McGowan's comments have been savaged by Matthew Lloyd. Pic: Getty./Channel 9

AFL legend Matthew Lloyd has taken an angry swipe at Western Australia's Premier, as the war of words over quarantine hubs intensifies.

WA's Premier Mark McGowan caused a stir last week when he said Victorian clubs "aren't willing to leave their comfort zone," accusing them of double standards in the virus hubs debate.

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McGowan then doubled down on the comments in a press conference, following confirmation the state's two teams - West Coast and Fremantle - would be basing themselves out of the Gold Coast due to WA's border restrictions.

"Did I call them pampered? I obviously wasn't strong enough," he said in a press conference last week.

"What I meant was over-indulged and spoiled. Clearly the Victorian teams haven't covered themselves in glory here and they could have made the effort, at least some of them, to come and hub in Western Australia."

Lloyd said the Premier's comments were unproductive and insisted that the AFL was never going to please everyone over its plans for the season's resumption.

"I'm sick of it. It's all about grandstanding," Lloyd said on Channel Nine's Footy Classified.

"He's petty, I think he just didn't get his way and he's thrown the toys out of the cot. It's not going to be perfect.

"I'm sick of hearing fairness and who it's fair for, it's not going to be fair for anyone. Let's just get on with it, he's just doing it to get back in."

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Collingwood president Eddie McGuire and Richmond great Matthew Richardson were also critical of the Premier, with the latter saying he was "staggered" by the comments.

"This whole state versus state thing, even last week we said it was getting tired – it's even more tired now," Richardson said.

"Seriously, we just want to get our great game going again. We know the financial difficulties that we're all facing, particularly the football industry trying to get started again."

McGuire - who is part of the AFL's 'coronavirus cabinet' - says the 14-day quarantine rules for interstate travellers into WA make setting up quarantine hubs in the state problematic.

“We’ve been saying for over eight weeks about the idea of, I think I used the example of Collingwood and St Kilda going over to Perth: If they didn’t have a two-week (quarantine) period when you go in there … we’d be over with our ears pinned back.

“So we’re getting to some sort of sense now, as long as we don’t get the politicians trying to just go silly and try and go all populist. Everyone’s working together on this type of stuff.”