Six venues locked in for NRL return

The Sydney Roosters, Cronulla, Parramatta, the Bulldogs and South Sydney are poised to play at Bankwest Stadium when the NRL premiership resumes next week.

The Bulldogs and Eels battled at Bankwest Stadium in the NRL’s Round 1 in March

The Sydney Roosters, Cronulla, Parramatta, the Bulldogs and South Sydney are poised to play at Bankwest Stadium when the NRL premiership resumes next week.

It is understood the ARL Commission finalised six venues for the NRL’s return at a meeting on Tuesday morning. As well as Bankwest Stadium, they will use Campbelltown Stadium, Central Coast Stadium, Suncorp Stadium, AAMI Park in Melbourne and Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville.

Canberra, Wests Tigers, Penrith and St George Illawarra will play their home games at Campbelltown Stadium while Manly, Newcastle and the Warriors will play out of the Central Coast.

Brisbane and the Gold Coast will be based at Suncorp Stadium while Melbourne and North Queensland will continue to utilise their home grounds. The NRL has streamlined the number of grounds for the competition’s return to help reduce costs and ensure they are able to maintain their strict biosecurity guidelines.

The new rules mean that only a handful of teams will play at their actual home grounds, although the impact of home ground advantage will be significantly diluted given the absence of crowds.

The NRL said in a statement that the venues had been chosen based on a range of factors including those best equipped to meet the NRL’s strict biosecurity protocols which have been formulated to keep players, staff and the general community healthy.

Other factors included geographic location, rectangular rather than oval stadiums and commercial considerations.

They added that the venues would only be allocated until the end of round nine when the draw is released on Thursday.

Acting chief executive Andrew Abdo said the strategy was designed to ensure all venues provided the safest possible environment for players and staff, based on the NRL’s strict biosecurity protocols.

“The competition will begin with a consolidated approach to venues,” Abdo said.

“Each venue requires customised infrastructure to meet our strict biosecurity requirements. We’ve adopted a phased approach for venues should restrictions be eased in the future.

“We’ve chosen three consolidated venues for clubs in and around Sydney to ensure there are no double headers at venues and in different parts of the region to meet the geographical challenges we face.”