CDRL clubs a chance to play but player payments scrapped
Cairns and District Rugby League clubs could still return to the field this year but players will not be paid for their efforts.
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Cairns and District Rugby League clubs could still return to the field this year but players will not be paid for their efforts.
CDRL secretary/operations manager Pat Bailey said, if play could return in 2020, the financial impact of COVID-19 would force participating clubs to scrap match payments.
“What (players) are doing it for is for the love of the game, or for their own fitness, whatever it is, but nobody will be getting paid to play,” she said.
Bailey said the CDRL would support clubs wanting to play rugby league in some capacity.
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“There’s still some clubs that may be able to put something together but it must be run by the CDRL, for a start, and we must have permission from the QRL and the Queensland Government to do anything,” she said.
“If we’ve got clubs that want to do it and we could do something to help them, that’s what we’re about.”
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Three clubs — Brothers Cairns, Tully Tigers and Ivanhoe Knights — are driving a push for league’s return, but it would hinge on a further easing of government restrictions.
Innisfail Leprechauns had expressed interest in participating in some form of rugby league this year, but has since put a line through such notion following an Innisfail Brothers Leagues Club board meeting.
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Bailey said all clubs would be welcome, if matches are able to go ahead, but majority had already put the 2020 season behind them and were looking toward 2021.
If anything can get off the ground later in the year, it will not be able to extend beyond the QRL’s abeyance period of Sunday, October 18.
Originally published as CDRL clubs a chance to play but player payments scrapped