Devils keen for local footy revival as plans take shape
Club president: ‘We’re pretty hopeful to get back on the paddock.’
Gympie
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RUGBY LEAGUE: Anticipation is building at the Gympie Devils as Sunshine Coast rugby league brass begin talks about a plan of attack to revive the coronavirus-interrupted 2020 season.
Rugby League Sunshine Coast president Glenn Peatling said the league originally thought the entire season would be wiped out when the pandemic took hold, forcing nationwide shutdowns across all codes.
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But now it is understood the league hierarchy has a plan of attack to relaunch the season if authorities deem it safe.
Mr Peatling said the league board was expected to meet last night to analyse contingency plans if the green light for a return to the field is given.
Devils president Mitch Hillcoat said he hoped to hear more in the coming weeks.
“We’re going by the State Government. Once they say we’re good to go the QRL will step in and start talking return dates and whichever format the league wants to play in,” Hillcoat said.
“They’ve already been working on different scenarios like redoing the draw and extending the date so the grand final is later in the year.
“I had an email about (the board meeting) last night, hopefully we’ll know more after that.”
Hillcoat said he supported the idea of extending the season to later in the year, and potentially completing the entire regular season plus finals.
He said many Devils players had been in touch with him about staying fit while they wait for the go-ahead from league officials.
“We could probably extend the season, I think the regular season is only about 16 weeks or something like that,” he said.
“So if we push the season back we can get a full year in.
“A lot of the boys have been in contact with me and got a lot of weights out of the gym and are doing their own stuff at home.
“A few of them have been training in pairs at the ovals, which you’re allowed to do, doing sprints and things like that, doing whatever they can to stay match fit.
“We’re pretty hopeful to get back on the paddock.
“Obviously there’s lots of businesses who have put in their hard-earned dollar to keep us going, they want to see us playing footy as well, so fingers crossed.”
Peatling said the league would “only have plans on how we want to enact” until confirmation that a restart could happen.
“The bare minimum we are looking at is one round each competition,” he said.
“But we are looking at options to redo the draw and even extend the season to September.”
The NSWRL has confirmed community rugby league across the state is set to resume on July 18, subject to another review in June.
At present, NSW has similar orders to those restricting activity and interaction in Queensland.
“We will continue to update all stakeholders as new advice comes to hand and our staff will continue working on contingencies for rugby league competitions in 2020, based on restrictions in place and, most importantly, local needs,” a QRL spokesman said.
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