Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nAll players and staff were cleared from the field and bench as a result \u2013 but where the two teams took shelter became a moment of controversy.<\/p>\n
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Blues players were filmed inside their new state-of-the-art gym, keeping warm on exercise bikes and other fitness equipment.<\/p>\n
Wild weather saw play stopped at IKON Park.Source: Getty ImagesThe Blues were able to stay indoors and warm using their gym equipment.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
The Giants meantime were left \u201csitting still\u201d as ground staff had to pump out water before the team could even re-enter the field more than half an hour later.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems a little bit unfair that (Carlton) get access to those facilities \u2013 there\u2019s definitely not those facilities in the GWS rooms currently,\u201d commentator Kate McCarthy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s just play devils advocate for a minute \u2026 you\u2019ve got one team utilizing any equipment they would like in an indoor warm-up facility \u2026 Then you\u2019ve got another team that just has access to their change rooms which has actually flooded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a huge competitive advantage. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re able to keep your players warm as opposed to players just sitting down in their change rooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s something that needs to be looked into.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a genuine unfair advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s nothing Carlton have done wrong if they haven\u2019t been told that they have to go to their change room or told to stay in their change room.<\/p>\n
Water had to be pumped from the GWS players’ race.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think if one team has access to those facilities, the other team has to have access to similar facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time, the Giants were goalless when they were forced from the field and trailed by 65 points against a Carlton side playing for finals.<\/p>\n
GWS would go on to kick five goals to two after the weather break, but McCarthy believes the discrepancy in facilities would have been a bigger issue had the Giants still been contenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this meant more, this game and was closer, there would be a huge talking point coming out for that regard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re the opposition coach, I don\u2019t think you\u2019d be super happy seeing pictures of the opposition utilizing that sort of stuff (gym) when you don\u2019t have that yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
GWS coach Cameron Bernasconi later said he \u201cdidn\u2019t realise\u201d the Blues had been able to stay warm on equipment in their gym.<\/p>\n
But refused to use that as an excuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty unique situation \u2026 I thought the girls managed really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The flooding into the GWS rooms.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
AFLW reporter Nat Edwards said it was known that the old change rooms at IKON Park \u201coften flood\u201d, joking she had to \u201cswim out\u201d of the Giants rooms where cameras couldn\u2019t go due to safety issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need a rubber raft, a set of waders and a snorkel down there,\u201d fellow commentator Alister Nicholson joked.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine if this game was tighter and there was more on the line for the Giants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact the Carlton players were able to go into their gym \u2026 while the Giants had to go down to the really substandard, you\u2019d have to say, rooms here at Carlton on the broadcast side of the ground. The old part of the ground which actually flooded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do wonder whether there is an obligation that both teams would have to go to their change rooms rather than a secondary facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlton would go on to claim a 46-point win to all but lock themselves in for finals with one game left to play.<\/p>\n
Dangerous conditions a ‘Safety Issue’ | 02:01<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL has reportedly ticked off the \u201cunfair advantage\u201d Carlton gained in Sunday\u2019s AFLW clash where they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,74056,64,63,689,55,639,49927,117766,9203,20769,145365,8023,145369,145370,145366,145371,1139,145368,100138,144315,126367,677,71967,145372,85,18394,145367,660],"class_list":["post-243902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-alister-nicholson","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ballarat","tag-cameron-bernasconi","tag-catherine-healey","tag-change-rooms","tag-dangerous-conditions","tag-fitness-equipment","tag-flooded-changeroom","tag-flooded-dressing-room","tag-flooded-rooms","tag-genuine-unfair-advantage","tag-greater-western-sydney-giants","tag-indoor-warm-up-facility","tag-kate-mccarthy","tag-lightning-delay","tag-nat-edwards","tag-oceania","tag-opposition-coach","tag-play-devils","tag-sports","tag-talking-point","tag-unfair-advantage","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}