Biosecurity expert David Heslop clarifies protocols with NRL clubs

The guardian of rugby league’s extensive biosecurity guidelines has addressed club bosses about the NRL’s strict protocols.

The New Zealand Warriors have been cleared to fly into Australia to start their 14-day quarantine period. Picture: Darren Pateman

The guardian of rugby league’s extensive biosecurity guidelines has addressed club bosses as part of a telephone hook-up to clarify some of the strict protocols designed to fast-track the game’s return on May 28.

Associate professor doctor David Heslop, an expert in major disasters and infectious diseases, has reviewed and finetuned the NRL’s protocols and will play a key role in their enforcement once they come into effect.

The Australian understands he spoke to chief executives and heads of football on a conference call on Monday afternoon, the first of a series of week-long discussions involving the governing body and the clubs.

Heslop’s biography with the University of NSW says that through his work with the Australian Defence Force, he has been extensively deployed into a variety of “complex and austere combat environments”, and gone on to undertake advanced training in Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) medicine.

It adds that he has extensive experience in planning for and management of major disasters, mass casualty and multiple casualty situations.

“I also have extensive overseas and domestic operational experience in command, personnel management, force protection, health protection systems, resilient systems design and test and evaluation,” Heslop adds.

Heslop was hired by the NRL to help facilitate the game’s return — clubs are due to begin training on May 4 and the competition itself is scheduled to come back on May 28.

When they do resume, players and officials will do so under strict conditions designed to ensure they are kept at arm’s length from the general community and protected from COVID-19.

Heslop will be pivotal to bringing the protocols into effect and ensuring they do exactly what they are designed to do.

Crucially, the Warriors were given clearance to enter the country on Monday afternoon by the federal government and the hope is that they will receive permission from the NSW government to train while in quarantine in Tamworth, about three hours from Sydney. The NRL will be able to fly the Warriors straight from Auckland to Tamworth, where the squad is expected to be based for two weeks while they serve their isolation period. They are then likely to move to Sydney for the resumption of the competition.

News of the Warriors getting the green light from the respective federal governments of Australia and New Zealand removes one of the most significant impediments to the NRL restarting.