Melbourne Storm may be forced to relocate due to Covid

The NRL will hold talks with Melbourne on Monday afternoon amid concerns over the latest outbreak of COVID-19 in Victoria.

The Melbourne Storm may be be asked to move to NSW. Picture: Getty Images

The NRL will hold talks with the Melbourne Storm on Monday afternoon as they consider taking the pre-emptive step of asking the club to move to NSW.

The Storm have been given permission by the Victorian government to train as normal, but the NRL’s concerns are with the reaction from other states as they respond to the ongoing lockdown in Victoria.

“We’re going to look at the Melbourne Storm today,” ARL Commission chair Peter V’landys told SEN radio on Monday morning.

“We may take them out and bring them to a resort in NSW where they can train in isolation.

“There’s a possibility at some point that the NSW and Victorian borders may close, and we can’t take that risk.

“We’ve got to be two to three steps ahead, we were last year, and we hope to be again this year. We’ve got strategies for all scenarios, we’re ready.”

The Storm spent much of last season based on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast due to COVID-19. The hope was that they would avoid a similar fate this year, but the NRL is rightly concerned given the latest outbreak in Victoria.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday morning said he was not in a position to confirm when the current lockdown would come to an end.

That has put the NRL on red alert.

“We’ve got to be prepared, like we were last year,” V’landys said. “The situation in Victoria may possibly get worse, so we will be looking at various options today.

“We have our own expert who keeps in touch with the health authorities. We get very good information, and we have set ourselves three options.

“One option at the moment was have our players have life as normal – they may have now gone out the window with what’s happened in Victoria.

“We have a medium scenario, where we allow players certain freedoms and not as harsh as what they were last year. The third one was what we had last year.

“The matter that will change everything is the vaccine and how successful the rollout is.”

A spokesman for the Storm said the club had no plans to move but would continue to seek advice from the Victorian government and the NRL.