NRL news: NSW records Covid case numbers of more than 11k, pre-season training return date
With players returning from their Christmas breaks and the NRLW season a matter of months away, the NRL will tell clubs next week ‘the exact Covid procedures they need to follow.’
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The NRL is pushing forward with pre-season return to training dates and the first of the NRLW seasons in 2022 despite a spike in Covid numbers across NSW on Wednesday.
NSW recorded over 12,000 cases on Thursday as the Omicron variant continued to rapidly spreads through the state.
Players are currently on a two-week CBA mandated Christmas break but are expected to start reporting back to pre-season training from next week.
Round one of the postponed 2021 NRLW season is scheduled to kick-off on February 27.
But in a bid to avoid disruptions to pre-season preparations and the NRLW season, the NRL has bulk ordered tens of thousands of rapid tests that will be administered daily, for every player both male and female, over the next few months.
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It’s understood the NRL is also finalising a number of “additional biosecurity” measures that will be introduced early next week.
The NRL told News Corp it is unlikely players will be forced into a ‘bubble’ similar to the past two seasons but conceded the NRL would have to ‘adapt quickly’ to any new public health orders.
“We’ll be testing everyone daily before they go to training for quite a few months,” an NRL spokesperson said.
“We’ll be giving details to clubs next week with the exact procedures they need to follow.
“At this stage, there will be some additional restrictions, but not in a bubble as such, that the clubs will be advised of in the next week, they are still being worked on.
“The situation is changing daily. We’re taking all the medical advice and monitoring what happens daily and adapting as quickly as we need to.”
Isolation rules for positive cases and close contacts have wreaked havoc on elite competitions both locally and across the globe.
The A-League, WNBL and NBL have had to postpone matches while the third Ashes Test dodged a bullet after a Covid scare on Tuesday.
The EPL, NFL and NHL have all had to cancel or schedule matches. But the NFL confirmed they would be reducing the minimum stand-down period to five days for a positive case.
The NRL’s isolation rules are currently in line with the health advice of state governments. In NSW, positive cases have to isolate for at least 10 days.
But it’s believed the NSW government is considering slashing the isolation period from 10 to five days in the new year. It’s a move that would relieve some strain on player rosters and player availability for positive cases in the NRL.
The NRL could receive another boost after NSW Health confirmed the 7-day isolation period for close contacts would be scrapped from Wednesday.
Close contacts are now only required to isolate until a negative PCR test is returned.
But high-risk groups, like health care workers, would still be required to self-isolate.
The Daily Telegraph understands the NRL is currently seeking medical and government advice as to which category of close contacts players would fall under.
“At the moment it’s based on the isolation rules that are mandated by the government. We can’t have rules that are contrary to government law so we’ll have to wait and see if that changes,” the spokesperson said.
The NRL has not placed any additional protocols on players beyond current public health orders while they have been on their Christmas break. But some clubs had advised their players to avoid and restrict time spent in high risk indoor venues during the two-week leave period.
NRL’S CONTINGENCY FOR Covid WORST-CASE SCENARIO
Paul Crawley
In a potential back-to-the-future moment for rugby league, the NRL will consider allowing all contracted players on each clubs’ books to be eligible to play NRL at any point next season as the spectre of Covid-19 looms large.
The idea has been put directly to Peter V’landys by Ricky Stuart and it is now one of several contingencies the NRL is looking at.
It potentially could mean all players in NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg could be called up any given weekend to help avert the cancellation of an NRL game due to a Covid outbreak.
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Stuart confirmed he told V’landys clubs can’t be forced “into lockdown for seven days every time someone sneezes”.
“People smarter than me are looking after this but what I told Peter is that we have got to have our rookies, our trial trainers, we have got to have them all ready to go,” Stuart said.
“And it can’t be in June/July (when clubs can call up players outside the top 30 roster).
“We have to train these blokes as if they are going to be playing first grade at some stage this year because there is going to be disruptions, but we can’t ruin the product.”
V’landys said the idea “is definitely an option” the NRL will be looking at. It would be for worst-case scenario, when clubs are smashed by multiple Covid infections during the season.
The Raiders have had two players and a staff member return positive tests in recent days, while South Sydney and Newcastle also had to abandon pre-Christmas training after players tested positive.
In AFL, the Sydney Swans situation was far worse with at least 10 players returning positive tests.
If that happened during the season at an NRL club they would struggle to field a team under the current top 30 roster system, especially when injuries are thrown into the mix.
We are already seeing in the impact the exploding infection rates are having on the English Premier League with multiple matches cancelled last weekend, and American sports are suffering similar dramas.
With the NRL TV contracts demanding eight games a weekend, Stuart’s all hands on deck approach could be a necessity.
It would also take the game back to how it used to be when a coach could call up any lower grade player any weekend, and he didn’t have to wait until a certain point of the season to do it.
The ARL Commission chairman also backed rapid antigen testing as the chief weapon to counter the skyrocketing infection rate.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo told News Corp this week that players would be tested up to six times a week from the moment they return to training after their end of year break.
V’landys has first-hand experience how the system works through his role as chief executive of Racing NSW.
“The ones I have been using in racing saved racing, because we have been doing it with the jockeys for the last eight or nine months,” V’landys said.
“And I am confident if we do it properly we won’t be interrupted.
“We will test every player before they go to training.
“And we are going to do it in a way that is the least inconvenient.
“It is self-test where you take the cartridge with you and you bring it to training, and that way no one can get into training that hasn’t had a test.
“It only takes 15 minutes. It only actually takes a minute and the other 14 minutes is waiting to get the result.
“Our protocols will commence at a certain date and I am very confident that we won’t be interrupted.”
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