The Warriors have told players to use commonsense if they’re heading to New South Wales or Victoria for Christmas, because of the rising number of Covid-19 cases.
The players take a break from preseason training on Tuesday and a number of them are planning to leave the team’s base in Redcliffe, to join their families in other parts of Australia.
But with New South Wales reporting 2213 cases on Friday and there being 1510 in Victoria, Warriors management don’t want to find themselves in the same situation in the new year that the Knights and Raiders are currently in, with those clubs forced to go into lockdown, because of positive cases inside the teams.
While the Warriors won’t force anyone to remain in Queensland for the two-week break, they are asking players to be cautious.
“The club has asked everyone to use commonsense,” Warriors assistant coach Justin Morgan said.
“It would be crazy to walk into a hotspot and we’ve seen the number of cases in New South Wales and Victoria. But at the same time you’ve got to balance that with seeing family
“A number of these guys have missed family, some of them have extended family over here.
“My personal circumstances, I’m still up in the air about where I’m going to go. I’m certainly not going to go to Melbourne to see my children, it would be too risky.
“If I was to go to New South Wales, it would maybe be regional.
“But I think the majority of people understand that we have to be back here on January 4 and ready to train.
“We’ve seen the cases spike and who knows where this is going to go with this pandemic?
“So the club has asked people to use commonsense and there will be players and staff who’ve had to alter plans, but that’s the way it goes unfortunately.”
Warriors winger Marceolo Montoya said he was planning on returning to New South Wales with his partner, but they’ve now decided to spend Christmas in Queensland.
“I think it’s about making a smart decision,” Montoya said.
“But I think the best decision now is to hang tight and see where it is early next year, because you don’t want to risk being stuck in quarantine.”
Meanwhile, Morgan said the club is likely to make a decision soon on whether to offer Ash Taylor a full contract for 2022.
The former Titans star is on a train and trial deal with the Warriors and the club need to determine whether they’ll have him included inside their 30-man squad for next season.
“We’ve got all the way up until the first round, but he’s tracking nicely,” Morgan said.
“He’s a high quality player and he’s ticked all the boxes we’ve asked him to tick, physically with his parameters and also with his training loads.
“I’d say a decision would be coming sooner rather than later. I don’t think it will be coming pre-Christmas.
“I think everyone will go away, then come back, settle in in January and have a look it then.
“We’ve certainly got all of the way up until March, but there’s a really good chance he’ll get a full-time deal if he keeps progressing the way he has done so far.”
