Rothmans medallist and Border solicitor Mike Eden would love to see Albury welcome an AFL club to set up an isolation hub.
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After recently hosting NRL club Melbourne Storm, Eden believes the city is well equipped to cater for Adelaide or Port Adelaide, which were expected to be based in Queensland after being told by South Australian heath officials to begin preparing for a shortened AFL season interstate.
The Storm was granted access to Albury Sportsground after Albury councillors voted against them using the council-operated Greenfield Park at an extraordinary meeting last week.
Eden believes Albury's location will allow for a much easier commute to Melbourne or Sydney and cost significantly less than using the Gold Coast, which has been floated as an ideal hub location for the AFL.
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"The town is open for business. We don't need to have council permission to run training at Albury Sportsground," Eden said.
"We've just had the Storm up here who are pretty well connected to AFL people in Melbourne and could be referees for a bid if they were willing to come here.
"I'm sure the AFL, who will make the ultimate decision, would like to spend their money here rather than send their teams up to the Gold Coast."
Eden has contacted Quality Resort Siesta manager Steve Jones and said he's ready to go and couldn't see why Albury Tigers officials wouldn't be the same.
"He's (Jones) got 80-odd rooms there all COVID-19 NRL protocol prepared and I'm sure there would be similar protocols at the AFL," Eden said.
"That's where the Siesta is good, there's plenty of room for them to wander around inside the gates.
"I think it would be great for the town. They can come up here tomorrow because everyone has seen how good the ground looks."
Meanwhile, the five Albury councillors who voted against the Storm using the city's facilities during its brief stay on the Border stand by their decision.
Councillors Darren Cameron, David Thurley, Alice Glachan, Graham Docksey and deputy mayor Amanda Cohn got the decision over the line, 5-4.
The Storm returned home on Tuesday after the easing of restrictions announced by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday.
Cr Cameron wasn't impressed to see a social media post from a Storm official speaking to fans outside Albury Sportsground last week, justifying his decision to vote against the use of council facilities.
However, he believes better procedures must be put in place by council around decision making in short periods of time or emergency situations.
"One of the key problems was as late as Saturday, they were still planning to go to Yarrawonga," he said.
"The bottom line is, it was a very unusual situation and it's not one we ever want to see repeated.
"I hope the Storm comes back. They're very welcome and I'll do everything I can to support them or any other sporting team whenever there's not a pandemic on."
Cr Thurley was also unhappy with fans being encouraged to gather outside the ground
"I was taking a cautious approach and I believe that (Daniel) Andrews was going to lift his restrictions on the 11th (of May) anyway, so why were we making a big fuss for four days? I'm still comfortable with my decision and quite happy with it," he said.
Cr Cohn knew the Storm's stay was only going to be four nights, but the decision was based on mitigating risk to the community.
"I'm very relieved that the stay has been uneventful, but I don't think that means we made the wrong decision," she added.
Cr Docksey and Cr Glachan both said the decision was made on the best advice they had at the time.