The Albury Sportsground has been quickly repurposed to host the Melbourne Storm's training session on Wednesday morning.
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The sportsground, which Storm chief executive Dave Donaghy described as "one of the best surfaces in NSW", will be the NRL club's training base for the next few days after Albury councillors sensationally blocked players from using Greenfield Park at an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday night.
"I became aware a couple of nights ago there were some agitation from some of the councillors," Donaghy told Garry Lyon and Tim Watson on SEN Breakfast on Wednesday morning.
"We'll be in Albury but for the first time ever, we'll be asking people to stay away from us.
"Albury Tigers is where we will train and it's not a council-owned field so that's where the boys will base themselves in.
"Albury has been trying to get the Storm back for about a decade now (for a pre-season game), we had a long-term relationship with the local region and we're really disappointed about this.
"But the Albury Tigers have stepped up."
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Earlier, Albury deputy mayor Cr Amanda Cohn joined the program, saying "I voted (against the Storm training) because our communities have made huge sacrifices, local people have lost their jobs and businesses so it's an unacceptable that a sporting team could come from out of town and use our facilities".
"I really regret that we didn't have the opportunity to debate this sooner. It was first floated in the media about three weeks ago and I voiced my concerns to the mayor (Kevin Mack) and at that time and I was assured it wasn't going to happen," she said.
"Unfortunately councillors in Albury only found out on Sunday afternoon where the Storm announced they were coming so I think there was a loss of communication somewhere along the line and it would've been better to make this decision a few weeks ago.
"It's been estimated that about $50,000 would've been spent in Albury but again we look at the risks and benefits ... to now make an exception that could put the community at risk is just not worth it."
Cr Cohn's stance against the Storm comes as the Border GP indicated on social media she won't be supporting one of the federal government's key weapons in the coronavirus fight, the COVIDSafe app, despite medical experts urging the country to do so.