Adelaide and Port Adelaide could be able to fly in, fly out for games without quarantining once Covid-19 infection numbers drop in the eastern states. 

SA Health chief public officer Nicola Spurrier told Adelaide radio on Thursday morning that easing restrictions on the Crows and Power right now would be an “unacceptable risk”. 

“We agonised over this… we looked at every which way how we would be able to not require a large group,” Spurrier said. 

“Not just the players, but the other people you would need with a football team… we really felt that it was not possible to do it safely in South Australia without having that two-week quarantine.

“(Allowing travel) is really going to be when we relax the restrictions.

“But honestly, four or five weeks ago I wouldn’t have predicted we would do so well in South Australia… so let’s see how we go in the eastern states.”

South Australia has recorded just one new case of COVID-19 in the past 20 days, while Victoria has recorded nine new cases overnight.

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Spurrier told Triple M’s Roo & Ditts that the Crows’ breach of training protocols while in the Barossa Valley had “nothing to do with it” and that the decision was made in the interest of the South Australian public. 

“It’s absolutely a separate thing,” Spurrier said.

“We have a set of directions to do with the pandemic and we have a way of managing it.

“We’re asked on a daily basis from a range of people for exemption (from quarantine measures)... we did the same with the AFL proposal. 

“At the end of the day, my job is to protect the health of South Australians.”

The AFL has earmarked next month as a potential return date for the 2020 season.