NSW Government ‘not in that space yet’ to discuss NRL’s plans to get fans back in the stands by July 1
The AFL were smarting from ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys’ weekend comments but one great has time his comeback perfectly.
NRL
Don't miss out on the headlines from NRL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Good news for NRL fans is that the game will be back on the field on Thursday, the bad news is that fans could still be kept away for some time.
As the NRL continues a victory lap for getting back on the field despite intense criticism of returning too soon, ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has already started to campaign for capped crowds to be allowed back into the stands.
Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 NRL Telstra Premiership, returning Thursday 28th May. Watch every game Live & On-Demand with no-ad breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
With restrictions being eased in NSW and several states, V’landys said that he wanted some fans back by July 1.
"You are allowed so many people so we will start looking at that with the biosecurity measures in the coming weeks," V'landys told The Australian.
"And I am not saying capacity crowds. I have to stress capped crowds. That is one way you can reward the members that have stuck firm."
As for how many fans can get in, V’landys said ANZ Stadium’s 80,000 capacity “might be able to get 20,000 with social distancing, whereas somewhere like Kogarah you might get 5000” although they were just estimates.
NRL stars were well behind the plan.
Wests Tigers legend Benji Marshall told reporters that it was “tough playing with no crowd”.
"Of course we want crowds to return — they play a massive part in our game — but not until it’s safe and healthy for everyone to be able to do that,” Marshall said. "Our supporters is what the game is about."
Parramatta Eels captain Clint Gutherson said he hope it could be worked out “sooner rather than later”.
“The sooner you can allow people to watch what they love, support to teams they want to and get back to that normal as long as it’s safe for everyone, I can’t see the reasons to keep postponing it,” he said. “As players, we’d love to see the fans there because they’re just as important as anyone.”
Melbourne Storm chairman Matt Tripp also said he would like his club to be a “test case” for the return, teasing a scenario with progressively more fans allowed in, he said on RSN’s Breakfast Club.
But NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the move was not part of any plan the government was currently looking at.
“We’re not in that space yet,” she said. “It’s up to organisations to consider their options but certainly we’re not in that space yet.”
Pushed further on whether she felt it was too soon, the premier said: “We’re working our way through the list, and that’s not on the list yet.”
Similarly NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant warned the mingling of fans would be the issue but offered a glimmer of hope for the code with the admission they would be willing to “work with” the NRL.
Similarly, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said her state would “take it each month as it comes”.
But after V’landys ridiculed AFL still grappling with the idea of bubbles over the weekend, AFL great Garry Lyon hit back at the NRL, saying the league won’t miss the hip pocket benefits of having crowds.
“That’s alright, push-ahead Pete is on a nice wave of momentum at the moment. I don’t think they’ll miss the crowds much either by the way given not many turn up,” Lyon said on his SEN Breakfast in a discussion with former Essendon skipper Tim Watson.
It comes after the latest cross-code swipe as V’landys told SMH he “had a giggle” about the AFL continuing to argue over “bubbles”.
“The first thing I said to Wayne Pearce, who heads Project Apollo, is that we won’t be using ‘bubbles’. We’ll just need self-isolation — and I was right,” V’landys said on Friday.
“Three weeks later, the AFL was still looking at bubbles. But no, I was more worried about us and making sure my predictions were the right ones.
“I said, nine weeks ago, that we could train in Victoria and Queensland — at that stage we couldn’t. I said the Warriors could come over — at that stage we couldn’t.”
Watson added that the spread of the AFL was part of the reason behind the competition’s more tentative decision to return.
“Look, I don’t want to start a war between the AFL and the NRL, but I would just like to point this out to push-ahead Pete and that is that it is a little more complex with a national game, accommodating teams from five different states as opposed to the NRL which has people in Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand,” Watson told SEN Breakfast.
— with AAP
Originally published as NSW Government ‘not in that space yet’ to discuss NRL’s plans to get fans back in the stands by July 1