Football is. Stefan Valentini
The coronavirus experience can be a very individual one and certainly one that is relatable for all of us right now. However, I don’t imagine there are too many of us who have real world experience with being in Hotel quarantine and the isolation of this experience.
As Melbourne moved into the stage three and later four lockdown I spoke with Avondale FC’s Stefan Valentini about lockdown 2:0, his decision to return to Perth and hotel quarantine. I initially spoke to Stefan about the cancellation of the season and then followed up with him after he returned to Western Australia and ultimately Adelaide.
Season Cancellation
Football is. How did you feel when Football Victoria confirmed that the 2020 season was cancelled?
Stefan Valentini I was eating dinner at the time it was announced. It's heartbreaking. I had a feeling that it would be called off. But I had this hope (the first time) when they stopped everything that we’d be back playing football. When we started training and everything I thought it was gonna come back and then was buzzing and had the motivation. But to have it taken away again. This time it really hurts. This is heartbreaking. Especially not being from Melbourne and coming here to play. It is hard. So, yes, it's pretty hard to handle that news. But you’ve just got to get by and focus on other things and try to keep as fit as you can.
Football is. We are in July. So make the assumption footballs back next year. Where does that leave you for that next six or seven months?
Stefan Well at the moment I'm just focused on working on things that I couldn't work on during the season and trying to perfect my game and just get ready for next season. I'm definitely gonna stay in Melbourne and play for Avondale. I want to play for Avondale next year and that's definitely the plan. Hopefully all is good and that happens. But as much as I want to play for the rest of the year and I've thought about going home and playing in Perth. This is where I want to be. I came here for a reason so I don't see myself going back home. But at the end the day you never know what’s going to happen. I definitely want to be at Avondale next season.
Football is. How do you think all this disruption has affected the way you feel on a day to day basis.
Stefan For myself it's always been about football, it's all I've ever thought about. For this to happen and not to have football to think about and wake up and go to training and get your head off things in your personal life. You just want to go training, see the boys and train with them and then play on a weekend and get buzzing for the weekend and play your game and enjoy your weekend with the team. It is hard. To be honest I don’t think it's going to hit me until I start watching people playing in the interstate leagues. I think that's what's going to affect me the most.
I'm just trying to keep my mind off things at the stage. I coach, I do one on one sessions. I was doing group sessions and coaching the under 16 girls team at Avondale. So hopefully when that is back up and running, I can do that to take my mind off things.
Football is. I know we area at the early stage of the lockdown but is it different for you at all this time, around?
Stefan Valentini Well it's my birthday tomorrow and I can’t even celebrate! Yeah, I've been locked down for an extra week because I was in one of those 10 postcodes so I kind of got that bonus week, so it hasn't been too good. I can’t help feeling that if we stayed in lockdown I could have coped a little bit better. To experience a little bit of normality and then go back into lockdown has been hard, it's an absolute shambles, so yeah, shambles.
Stefan made the decision to return to Western Australia to play out 2020 with the hope that it would assist his visibility to the A-League but ultimately to ensure he doesn’t lose his touch on his return to NPL Vic and Avondale FC in 2021. Over the last few months we’ve heard a lot about the quarantine hotels but I’m not sure too many of us have heard a first hand account of what the process is like. Stefan talks about this experience and how his road back to football took an unexpected detour to Adelaide.
Life in Hotel quarantine
Football is. What was it like when you returned to Perth and had to stay in Hotel quarantine?
Stefan Valentini I went with my missus. We applied to get back into Perth when they put out an announcement saying if you are a WA resident get back in as soon as you can. We applied and got accepted. Then the next day, we booked our flight. We flew back on a Wednesday, got out of the plane, and we went through this area I've never seen before at the airport, it was underground. There was military and we had to wear a mask. Then they took us into this room, and all the seats were 1.5 metres apart. We sat there and then they were calling us in one by one, each family or couple or whatever. When it was our turn we had to hand the cops our application to get back into WA. They read through it checked that everything was good. We didn't know where we were staying or if we would have been refused entry.
We ended up at the Novotel on Murray Street. When we went to get our suitcases they were already taken off the carousel and placed 1.5 metres apart. After we collected our belongings we were put into groups of 10. We were in the first group. So one cop took us to a bus. All 10 people got in. Our bus was escorted by a cop car in the front and another followed behind us. It was about a 30 minute drive into the city. There was a lot of traffic. When we got to our hotel the street was blocked off. So there was some people at a bar across the road taking videos off of us and everything.
We had to wait outside until every couple was done. Then we walk in and they said, Are you staying together? we were like, yeah, they asked what size bed do you want? and then they said, Okay. Here's your room number. You can't leave the room. We'll sort out food for you. We'll give you a call every day. Then we got into the room. It wasn't massive but it was for two people it was okay.
We weren't allowed to leave the room. We weren't allowed to step foot out of the room. We had to stay 14 days in isolation, it was very boring. Lucky I had my girlfriend with me, but if I didn't have my girlfriend with me I think I’d have gone mad. So obviously, we're bantering and watching TV. I sure I've finished every single Netflix series possible. That's all I could do.I tried to keep the motivation to work out as well because I knew I'd be playing sooner or later somewhere. So I just tried to work out as much as I could in isolation. But when you're inside and you're getting no fresh air and have nothing to do it’s hard to keep motivated. So you really got to push yourself.
The first couple of days the food was good and then it became repetitive. So we started Uber Eats. You could get people to deliver food to reception and then reception will bring it up to your room. It would always be about 20-30 minutes late. Sometimes it will be cold.
To be fair, they were good calling every day. They'd call us and asked how we were mentally.
Two days in I didn't realise that there was no open window, no fresh air. I was on a FaceTime call with Zinni (Stefan) and he asked if we could get fresh air in? I looked and realised oh, no, I don’t and then I started stressing out. And then from then I’d start stressing that I can't leave this room there is still 12 days to go, you know? And that's what was hard, everyday life. Now it's 10 days, nine days, eight days. It wasn't, wasn't easy. Thank god it's done.
Football is. Did they do COVID tests while you were there as well?
Stefan We didn't get Covid tested before we flew. We didn't have any symptoms. If you had symptoms, you can’t leave. So we didn't get the test until the second day in the Hotel. You would open the door, you had to stand with your back on the door. They did the test. And then they would go. If you don't hear anything, that's good news and then on the 12th day, you get tested again. And if you've got a negative test, it's all good. So then you get a letter saying Stefan Valentini had two tests they were negative. He is free to go out into the real world. And they have a time on that. So it would list the time you arrived into WA, it was 4:29pm I think was the time we arrived at the hotel. In my case it was 4:29pm and that's the time that I could leave on my 14th day. So we packed our bags. We had to wait for that time.
We got to 4:20pm and I thought this is a joke. I was ready to go out the door. By the way, there's a security guard sitting outside in our hallway the whole time. There was never not someone there. So at 4:20pm we had nine minutes, and I was thinking honestly who cares surely they are going to let us go. I went to walk and the guard said you've got to wait to 4:29 to leave.
My dad came and picked us up, my mum and brother were working. It was a bit weird to be out there and get fresh air. Everyone came over that night we had a family dinner. Being around a lot of people didn't feel normal, but then from then on. It was all good.
2020 and beyond
Football is. So at that point you weren't already attached to a club or anything where you were? You’d gone home with the hope of getting in with a club. Is that right?
Stefan Valentini image supplied by Natasha Morello.
Stefan While I was in Melbourne a lot of clubs showed interest in me playing in Perth. But because there's no transfer window there you have to play five games in the state league before you get back into the NPL. And that wasn't something that interested me. I didn't want to go and play state league for five games. But at the same time, I was speaking to clubs in Adelaide and Queensland, because their transfer windows are open.
Financially and quality wise in I’d say Adelaide and Queensland are similar but not compared to New South Wales and Victoria. There was an Italian club the Adelaide Blue Eagles that I'd spoken to Avondale about and they that they were a good fit and that it would be a good way to prepare for next year. I stayed in Perth for a week. And now I'm currently in Adelaide.
Football is. How did it feel to finally get out there and play?
Stefan To play football again. It was unreal. I haven’t played for four and a half months. So match fitness was a worry. I did start the game, I played 75 minutes which was surprising. I thought I'd honestly only manage 20 minutes and I was blowing. It was game over for me. I scored, I won a penalty and I scored it. We drew 2:2. To play again after all that time the feeling was amazing. Obviously, it felt different because it wasn't for Avondale. My last game was against Melbourne Knights. I've played with Avondale for the last year and a half. It was a weird feeling. But look, it was good to be out there and play football again. And that's where I'll be for the next three months and who knows what's going to happen as well. I want to be back at Avondale next year and I definitely will be. But at the end of the the day you don't know what opportunities come.
Football is. Obviously there will be a season next year. I think clubs in the NPL Vic are already making player announcement. What do you think's gonna be the biggest challenge whenever the new season does start?
Stefan At the end of the day NPL Victoria is the strongest NPL league in Australia and that's where everyone wants to be, but it may be hard to get quality players due to the travel restrictions. Are they going to come to Melbourne with everything that's happened. I don't know. And I would hope it stays the same. I know that the interstate boys at Avondale definitely want to come back. We've all spoken about it. We all definitely want to be back at Avondale next season and play for them but we don't know about everyone, when the time comes, it could be different.
Hopefully it goes back to a bit of normality.
Football is. How are you occupying your time outside of football while you are in Adelaide?
Stefan Valentini Things here are pretty normal. You can have more than 10 people at your home. There's still social distancing, but I'd say it's pretty normal here. As for work when I was in Melbourne, I ran a coaching business. I did one on one training, group training and everything like that. I'm actually now organising that with my club here to do that and run an academy. It's something that I've been thinking about for a while. So, to start up something in another state and get people working for me. Adelaide is probably perfect because it's very close to Melbourne. So if I needed to fly to Adelaide and run clinics or anything like that I can. My goal is to really start something here and get it going along with Melbourne.
Football is. What do you think of the prospect of the A-League season aligning better with the NPL seasons?
Stefan I think if they did start the season that was kind of similar to the NPL. I think that gives more players an opportunity to be seen. They're doing their pre-season, you're doing their pre-season, you have preseason matches, you might play a quality game against an A-League club, you may get snapped up. I honestly think that this next season, the A-league, there's gonna be a lot of opportunity for players in the NPL, that haven't had an opportunity or have been close to it. I think it would be a good thing.
They're talking about this second division coming in which everyone's hoping that they do. They keep talking about it but it's never happened. If they can align the timing of the NPL and the A-League then you're looking at something that potentially could happen with the second league coming. I think it's a good thing and everyone that I've spoken to also feels it's a very good idea. So hopefully, they do do it. But again, who knows?
If you’d like to hear more from Stefan, I previously spoke with Stefan as part of my Football is. Isolation [immediate impact 2:0] series catch it here.
Please note that these Interviews were conducted on July 14 + Aug 19, 2020.
Thank you to Natasha Morello Photography for the action images of Stefan Valentini. Check out some of her work here http://natashamorello.squarespace.com/
