Queensland border closure forces NRL to suspend 2020 season

In an unprecedented blow, the NRL season has been suspended indefinitely — effective immediately — in an extraordinary response to contain the Coronavirus outbreak.

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg (left) and ARLC Chairman Peter V'landys speak to the media in Sydney, Sunday, March 15, 2020. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett) NO ARCHIVING

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ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has vowed that the NRL will do everything in its power to save every club from going under — but concedes there are no guarantees the greatest game of all will ever be the same again.

On an unprecedented day in our nation’s history, the billion dollar sport that is the NRL was suspended indefinitely along with the A League football competition.

V’landys had fought long and hard to keep rugby league from succumbing to the coronavirus crisis but in the end said the advice of biosecurity experts who could no longer guarantee the safety and health of the players could not be ignored.

“Our pandemic and biosecurity expert is one of the best in the world,” V’landys said.

“And we were alarmed at how it had changed in 24 hours.

“Yesterday all was good and we could continue to play, and today that took a dramatic turn.”

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg (left) and ARLC chairman Peter V'landys have made the decision to suspend the season.

V’landys labelled the decision “catastrophic” for the game and clubs.

“I don’t think we have ever, ever come across a financial crisis like this,” V’landys said.

“We will sit down with the players over the next week to look at how they are affected.

“This is a financial crisis , you can’t understate it.

“It is probably the biggest financial challenge the game will ever face.”

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Asked directly if the NRL season did not return this year would the NRL be around next year, V’landys was blunt: “Rugby league will always survive in some way.

“I can’t guarantee it will be the same way it is at the moment.

“No one can tell us how long this pandemic is going to last.

“In 24 hours it changed dramatically. So in the next 24 hours it could change even further.

“We are ready for the worst so we have to look at dealing with the worst, and that is what we will be doing in the next couple of weeks.”

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg also revealed all staff had been forced to take annual leave immediately and player pay cuts were inevitable.

Greenberg said the NRL would be closing its offices until May 1.

“This was a difficult decision but an important one to give our business the very best chance of retaining staff long term and allows us to consider our options to protect the long term future of the game,” he said.

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Greenberg was confident the game could still pay the players.

“Absolutely we still are,” Greenberg said.

“But I think this is a moment in time that the game’s cost base will need to be reset.

“And that cost base is across the entire sport.

“From players to clubs, central administration … everyone has a role to play in resetting the cost base.”

Greenberg also revealed players had been told not to turn up to training on Tuesday.

“It is indeed a deeply sad day but one of the most responsible days in our games history,” he added.

“We would not have reached this point unless the conditions had shifted so dramatically and so exponentially.

“For now we have asked out players not to turn up to training tomorrow while we resolve the situation as best we can.

“The self-isolation guidelines we have previously provided will remain in place.

“There will be a lot of uncertainty amongst our players but we will try to give them as much support as we possibly can.”

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V’landys did not put a time limit on how long the suspension could be in place and said the NRL would continue to look at every option to try and get the game back on the field as soon as possible.

This will include continuing to look at taking the game to a regional location or potentially even dividing the competition into two conferences with one in NSW and the other in Queensland.

But for now that is no chance of happening with the New Zealand Warriors making the call to return home before their country shuts its borders on Wednesday.

The Warriors were under growing pressure from players’ partners to return home with the chief executive Cameron George fielding calls from scared and angry wives and partners on Monday demanding to know why the NRL had not followed the lead of AFL and suspended the competition earlier.

V’landys did not regret fighting as hard as he did to keep rugby league on the field, although it was ultimately in vain.

“We have always said we would listen to expert advice,” V’landys said.

“Not people’s opinion. Not hysteria. We would listen to the biosecurity and pandemic expert and the chief medical officers and we have never deviated from that.

“Today we got advice unfortunately that we could not proceed and we immediately took that advice.”

Asked if the competition could return with fewer than 16 teams, V’landys said: “We will do our best to keep all our clubs viable.

“We are a family.

“We will do everything in our power to ensure every single one of our clubs remains viable and exists.

“We have some pretty tough decision to make in the next few weeks but the main objective is to keep everyone in our game viable.”

Originally published as Queensland border closure forces NRL to suspend 2020 season