Coronavirus crisis shuts down grassroots rugby league
Thousands of kids have been left without their beloved weekend sport after grassroots rugby league was officially suspended across Australia due until May — if not longer — due to coronavirus.
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Grassroots rugby league has been suspended across Australia due to the coronavirus.
As first revealed by The Daily Telegraph, every rugby league team from U/6s through to elite competitions like the Canterbury Cup in NSW and Intrust Super Cup in Queensland is now set to be temporarily shut down.
The NRL confirmed the decision on Wednesday morning, saying that the postponement included not only games and gala days but also all training sessions.
While the NRL has chosen to continue with Round 2 this weekend, the NSW Rugby League and Queensland Rugby league have agreed to suspend all competitions under their control until at least the first weekend in May.
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NRL Head of Football – Participation, Pathways and Game Development, Luke Ellis confirmed the decision on Wednesday morning, while also explaining that the State bodies felt it was the best way to assist in slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
“Community rugby league will be postponed until at least the first weekend of May,
that includes playing games and training,’’ Ellis said.
“The decision to pause community rugby league in Australia was not taken lightly and is
simply about the NRL and State governing bodies, as custodians of rugby league, putting
extra-conservative measures in place to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect
the health and wellbeing of our participants.
“Community rugby league doesn’t have the ability to enforce the same social distancing
procedures as the elite game. That’s why, in partnership with our state bodies, we have
chosen to err on the side of caution.”
The NRL will continue to meet with state governing bodies in relation to community
rugby league and will review Wednesday’s announcement based on government health
departments and experts.
The decision to effectively halt all rugby league below the NRL level, which was still to be voted on Tuesday night, comes after meetings with rival football codes over the past 48 hours.
During those talks it was determined a unified approach was best way to combat the growing Codiv-19 pandemic.
Already, Rugby Australia has announced all community and club rugby is suspended until at least May.
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Rugby league will also now call off all competition for at least the next eight weeks, and possibly longer, with board members from the NSWRL and QRL voting on the move Tuesday night.
Among those affected are the Ourimbah-Wyoming Under-11s, who only learned of the decision shortly before what was supposed to be their regular Tuesday afternoon training session on the Central Coast.
Club president Clint Power said while the players were obviously disappointed to have their season delayed, there were now far bigger issues at play right across Australia.
“We’re a small, family club,” Mr Power said. “So for us, the health and safety of our families is the number one priority.
“So this decision, it’s absolutely one we support.
“Obviously our kids were all looking forward to kicking off the season – we were supposed to have our first trial games this Sunday – but we also understand why these suspensions have been put in place.
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“Not only for our players and parents, but also all those grandparents involved with our club.
“Hopefully the actions being taken now can help stop the spread of this virus and, later in the year, we can all get back to playing rugby league again.”
The decision to suspend grassroots rugby league comes only days after Melbourne captain Cameron Smith urged the NRL to also shut down its elite competition saying “this thing is bigger than rugby league”.
The united move by State bodies will effectively keep some 100,000 footballers, plus their families, from interacting as the coronavirus crisis increases.
While the NRL is continuing with competition for now, most NSW Cup sides have already been moved out of their respective club training facilities as the 16 top squads go into lockdown.
Elsewhere, most NRL clubs have also ordered office start to work from home, with only those employees directly involved with either coaching or High Performance still in direct contact with players.