Grand Slam Novak Djokovic Saga: Australia Returns Serb

[Wosh]

Note: This is not a thread to air your views on left/right politics, vaccination mandates or conspiracies, this is a thread to discuss Djokovic and the Australian Open saga only. Humour is accepted and encouraged Abuse is not.
Thanks.

World erupts as Novak Djokovic learns his fate over visa cancellation

The Australian government has been slammed for its handling of the Novak Djokovic saga following the news he will be deported and will miss the Australian Open.

www.news.com.au

 

[phantom13]

With the constant disrumptions is he even "match fit" ?

He'll need a lot of his teams magic potions just to make it to the 4th round!

He’s probably the fittest player in your history. He’ll be fine in that regard.

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

So how is this fair justice for all people when only those who can afford at leaat $100,000 a day for lawyers can keep appealing?

 

[Lore]

He’s probably the fittest player in your history. He’ll be fine in that regard.

He’s not going to forget how to play tennis because he spent two weekends in a hotel or lawyer’s office… haha. It’s not like he has a weekday job, he’s been training the whole time he’s been here, and before he was here he was apparently using the official balls to practice in Spain (and perhaps Serbia).

 

[phantom13]

Twitter news mostly revolves around Karen Sweeney and other reporters.

As long as you’re discerning enough not to weight the opinion of anon239456843 as equal to an experienced reporter with a law degree, reading Twitter should result in an improved understanding of the situation as compared with most opinions posted on here (and in some cases, substantial improvement).

Again, the issue is that to understand what’s happened over the past week and a bit takes a fair bit of reading, most people cbf so just look at the outcomes. The process and timeframe it’s all taken is on the Oz govt to me.

 

[phantom13]

That really goes back to Tiley and TA imo.

Hunt sent them a clear instruction No vax, No Entry, which they did not pass on to the players and then tried to circumvent.

Agreed, unfortunately that led to the first judge making the now famous comment “what more could this man have done”. Feds or vic should have set up a telco to make sure everyone was on the same page, a lot of people looking to pass the buck and now Novak’s found some holes.

 

[Giant Strides]

All week it felt like a race to look like the bigger incompetent Dickhead.

Everyone looks stupid in this and the question at the bottom is such a key. We’ve all known Novak was gonna come fir ages, how the feds and state didn’t think it was worth 10 minutes on the phone to clarify and align is beyond me.

Make it clear to Novak amd the Oz public a month out that he will not be granted a visa and he probably doesn’t come, even if he does there is no confusion about it, he doesn’t have a visa and he’s not welcome.

This whole thing is an exercise in awful Comms and PR.

This is a really bad take.

In other words, take pre-emptive action that is discriminatory against an individual. Which would be an abuse of power.

The action they took was to stick to the stated rules: declare the requirement (to be double vaxxed) with allowable exemption (proper medical contraindication). As stated (for everyone) on the immigration website. They then made crystal clear to TA what was required and what was not acceptable. What occurred from there was perfidy and errors from others.

 

[parsons nose]

I suspect the decision will fall in favour of the Djokovic camp on this. Everyone will be happy. TA will have their biggest draw card secured, the Australian govt will look tough on border control despite losing the case, the Serbian government will have their hero to cheer and the average punter will have their their bad guy to jeer and ridicule and the media will be able to milk another two or three weeks out of the ongoing debacle. All round good result.

 

[Lore]

Again, the issue is that to understand what’s happened over the past week and a bit takes a fair bit of reading, most people cbf so just look at the outcomes. The process and timeframe it’s all taken is on the Oz govt to me.

Certainly the armchair critic relying on soundbites would be under-informed

 

[Lore]

I suspect the decision will fall in favour of the Djokovic camp on this. Everyone will be happy. TA will have their biggest draw card secured, the Australian govt will look tough on border control despite losing the case, the Serbian government will have their hero to cheer and the average punter will have their their bad guy to jeer and ridicule and the media will be able to milk another two or three weeks out of the ongoing debacle. All round good result.

On what ground would Djokovic win do you think?

 

[darklake]

It will be too late for this Aus Open by then though.

I hope his lawyers have explained that to him. Assume they have to.

 

[Lore]

I hope his lawyers have explained that to him. Assume they have to.

His lawyers have asked to skip the one judge option and go straight to a full court on the basis of trying to get it sorted out one way or the other asap

 

[darklake]

We have gone nuts and you can smell an election around the corner

Hopefully ScoMo gets taught a lesson

He will.. but, not for this.

 

[Lore]

It’s kind of interesting actually.

It’s been skipped one level up the chain already, by being referred from the federal circuit and family court to the federal court.

Going up another level and causing three justices to hear a case that was destined for the circuit court seems quite extraordinary.

 

[54Dogs]

Agreed, unfortunately that led to the first judge making the now famous comment “what more could this man have done”. Feds or vic should have set up a telco to make sure everyone was on the same page, a lot of people looking to pass the buck and now Novak’s found some holes.

I think the feds assumed TA would abide by their guidance and direct players accordingly, not an unreasonable position.

If TA sent a letter to all players saying "no vax, no entry, and covid last 6 mths is not an exemption reason" there is zero chance Novak even tries to come here and there is no issue.

Tiley absolutely has to go, unsustainable position now with the players and the govt.

 

[torq]

Craig Tiley's disregard of Greg Hunt's official advice is the centrepiece of this whole debacle.

At least there is now a clear message to every foreign national - tourists, students, seafarers, entertainers - if you can't be vaxxed for legitimate medical reasons, you will be given every consideration; if you simply refuse to be vaxxed, no entry, no exceptions.

 

[darklake]

Lawyers for Novak Djokovic say the Immigration Minister has erroneously cancelled his visa on the grounds the tennis star is seen as a "talisman of a community of anti-vaccine sentiment".

Nice to know what lawyer speak for "He is a a*sehole" is

Ahh... but,, an extremely rich and stubborn a-hole. Woody's favourite kind of client.

 

[Bungeye]

In the last few years, Australia have managed to piss off NZ, China, France, South Africa, Donald Trump and the whole of Serbia.
At least we still have Western Australia on our side...

 

[Xtreme]

He’s probably the fittest player in your history. He’ll be fine in that regard.

Would like to see a Stewie Dew v Djokovic treadmill competition!

 

[Giant Strides]

At least we still have Western Australia on our side...

Time to get some dynamite then ...

 

[V_23]

Craig Tiley's disregard of Greg Hunt's official advice is the centrepiece of this whole debacle.

At least there is now a clear message to every foreign national - tourists, students, seafarers, entertainers - if you can't be vaxxed for legitimate medical reasons, you will be given every consideration; if you simply refuse to be vaxxed, no entry, no exceptions.

Tiley always struck me as a smug campaigner, hopefully he comes under intense fire for his mishandling of this issue.

 

[Xtreme]

Tiley always struck me as a smug campaigner, hopefully he comes under intense fire for his mishandling of this issue.

He should be sacked

Bring in Pat Cash!!

 

[phantom13]

I think the feds assumed TA would abide by their guidance and direct players accordingly, not an unreasonable position.

If TA sent a letter to all players saying "no vax, no entry, and covid last 6 mths is not an exemption reason" there is zero chance Novak even tries to come here and there is no issue.

Tiley absolutely has to go, unsustainable position now with the players and the govt.

I might be totally wrong but didnt Tikey and TA also find some other corro that indicated the ATAGI exemption was suitable? I’m not in anyway defending Tiley either, he could have picked up the phone too but the Feds probably should have seen this disaster brewing and been more proactive. Ultimately everyone has the ability to point the finger for some bullshit and the rest of us sit back thibking “if I was that reactive in my job I’d probably already be fired”

 

[Power Raid]

Wrong.

Why did the courts over rule the initial decision then?

 

[torq]

Tiley always struck me as a smug campaigner, hopefully he comes under intense fire for his mishandling of this issue.

He'll go, sooner or later. At the very least I imagine he's lost the trust and respect of some of the players. It's a shame in a way because by all accounts he has been highly regarded for years but he misread this situation spectacularly.

 

[YeoShuey]

Hmm. I wonder why the government doesn’t want a Full Court.

Most likely because they recognise that their case is weak at best and if they were able to appeal, it would be during the AO which would lead to Djokovic being forced to withdraw.

In saying that, I hope it is before the Full Court. If the Government have a case, then they will win. I wonder why they are so worried for.