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The 2020 NRL season has been suspended and now the game finds itself negotiating through the coronavirus pandemic.

Here’s the latest updates.

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GOULD OR BENNETT TO SUCCEED GREENBERG?

Matty Johns has revealed that Phil Gould and Wayne Bennett are being mentioned as potential replacements for NRL CEO Todd Greenberg.

Greenberg has been heavily criticised for overspending and mismanagement of NRL funds and is not expected to have his contract renewed beyond 2020.

“A name that is starting to be bandied about as a successor to Todd is Phil Gould,” Johns said on Fox League Live.

“Gus has been mentioned and Wayne Bennett’s name has also come up over the last 24 hours,” James Hooper replied.

“He has been there and done it at all levels of the game Gus and is certainly a highly intelligent bloke with skin in the game.

“It would be left-field and he would have to want to do it. You know him really well personally. Could you see Gus wanting to take on a challenge like that?”

“One thing about Gus that would suit the game is he is not a populist,” Johns replied.

“He sometimes says and does things that irritate people and get on people’s nerves and that doesn’t worry Gus at all.

“That is the sort of bloke you want in charge that is going to be able to back Peter V’landys up and make unpopular decisions sometimes for the betterment of the game.”

SACRIFICE NRL PLAYERS MUST MAKE FOR SEASON RESTART

Australian Rugby League commissioner Wayne Pearce has told players they will have to make sacrifices such as moving away from their families in order to restart the NRL season.

The competition’s innovations committee will reconvene on Thursday, with Pearce in charge of finding a way to resume the 2020 premiership in June or July.

The most likely scenario remains players being placed in lockdown together. The so called ‘bubble’ would likely require them to be away from partners and family for as long as coronavirus remains a threat.

“When you are talking about taking players away from their families, absolutely it’s a sacrifice that players are going to have to make,” Pearce told Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.

“It’s not going to be like a normal season.

“But having said that, if they are keen to get back on the field and we are keen to get rugby league up and running - and there are a lot of positives to that - then sacrifices have to be made.”

How the NRL structures the quarantine camps remains a debate. The option of having separate bases where multiple teams would stay together for weeks at a time now seems preferable.

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It would help stop the virus spreading across the entire league if one player became infected and allow play to resume once experts deem it safe.

“Putting hundreds of players together in one environment is a lot higher risk ... in terms of biosecurity,” Pearce said.

“So there are a number of options we are looking at.”

Kangaroos hooker Damien Cook warned earlier this year he’d struggle to stay away from his family for more than two weeks to play for South Sydney. There would also be questions over the Warriors’ availability, given they are back in New Zealand and tight international travel restrictions remain. However Rugby League Players Association chief executive Clint Newton said last week the union was open to considering the prospect.

“We’re willing to explore all options for players provided first and foremost the players are going to be appropriately protected and kept safe, and we do what we can to ensure they are not put at any adverse risk,” he said.

“If that means that possibly we find ourselves in a situation where we would be playing in various locations then the players have obviously demonstrated in the first few weeks (of the shutdown) that they’re prepared to explore all options. “And then how is the player and their family going to be properly supported through that process?”

- via AAP

TEXT REVEALS GREENBERG’S BIG MISTAKE

NRL chief Todd Greenberg was battered from pillar to post during the week over the size of the pay cut he would take to help save the game.

Eventually he committed to taking the same percentage as the players - 72 per cent - which everyone agreed was the right thing to do.

But Sydney Morning Herald columnist Danny Weidler has revealed the text message that started the confusion and Greenberg’s big mistake.

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The message published on Sunday reads: “Mate I don’t have a specific idea of exactly when we will completely close down the office ... a few weeks at best ... but once we agree on how everyone will be paid across clubs and players and states then the commission are satisfied we are completely shut down ... then they will put the last few NRL staff on leave without pay ... that includes me and the exec and all of us. So whilst we took an immediate cut ... forget about pay cuts for me and Exec ... we will be like everyone else ... suspended without pay.”

The ARL commission supposedly first heard of Greenberg’s plan to take leave without pay when they read it last week.

Greenberg then denied the story in meetings, allegedly, before saying he would take a 25 per cent pay cut, and then being pressured into the 72 per cent just days later.

PEARCE REVEALS FIRST BOX TO TICK FOR JUNE 1 RETURN

The NRL’s Project Apollo team will soon finalise extreme protocols they hope will allow the season to resume in a bubble, with Wayne Pearce forecasting regular COVID-19 tests for players as a priority.

The league is targeting a June 1 resumption.

ARL commissioner Pearce is head of the innovation committee tasked with putting isolation plans in place for that to happen, a challenge likened to putting a man on the moon given the current health crisis.

“The term I’m using is putting a bubble around the players. What that actually looks like is not definitive yet, we’ll work that out by the end of this week,” Pearce told 2GB radio.

There is speculation that players could be housed in one location, such as the Queensland town of Gladstone or Moreton Island’s Tangalooma Island Resort. The rugby league great suggested players would “absolutely” have to be isolated from their families, noting it was important for them to be shielded from the broader community.

Pearce also outlined plans for players to be tested “regularly and accurately to make sure there are no breaches” of the bubble.

“The actual format of the competition is reasonably flexible, provided that we can ensure the location - the cities or towns that we play matches in - have available testing facilities,” Pearce said.

“That we can turn around the results really quickly. Some facilities, you can get test results back in 3-4 hours.

“So we need to make so we need to make sure that box is ticked first and foremost. Because that’s a real priority for us.

“To make sure we get on top of something (a coronavirus infection) if there is a breach. We’re hoping there will be no breaches.”

The actual structure of the new-look 2020 season, including the potential use of a conference system, is still being discussed.

“There’s pros and cons for a number of the different models,” Pearce said.

“If you put everyone inside the one bubble and there is a breach, that can potentially be a massive, massive issue.

“Rather than having smaller pods with less players in them ... it can be in a similar precinct, but you need to have that bubble around the different groups.”

- via AAP

PHIL GOULD’S DIRE CONCERN

Rugby league heavyweight Phil Gould fears for the mental health of NRL players during isolation.

In his Sydney Morning Herald column Gould explains why “lives could depend” on how clubs help their players deal with the pandemic lockdown.

“I am not being overdramatic when I say that lives could very well depend on how well we look after these young men over the coming months. Isolation, uncertainty about the future, the stress and pressure that comes with not only a loss of wages, but the abrupt changes to players’ lives, and their contact with friends and teammates, can lead to very serious health and wellbeing issues.

“This will be even more magnified for our younger Pacific Islander players because, for many, their football earnings could well be the major source of financial support for their entire family.

“As a game, we created this environment. We can’t just walk away from it. Might I say also that into the future we simply can’t abandon these programs because the NRL competition at the highest level is in a precarious financial position. Our game has obligations. Our priorities need to be set in order.”

MORE THAN 40 JOBS COULD GO AT NRL

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg says he’s fully committed to seeing out the game’s coronavirus-enforced crisis but admits there could be more than 40 jobs cut at headquarters.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph published on Sunday, Greenberg also said all NRL 16 clubs are on their own financially with no more bailouts available.

The chief executive has been encouraged to continue in the role after receiving messages of support from club CEOs and chairs, and also former ARL boss John Quayle.

“This is the biggest challenge our game has ever faced,” he told the newspaper.

“I’m absolutely fully committed to it and I’m buoyed by the messages of support this week, the phone calls and messages from people in and around the game.”

He said while he has been seen to publicly “butt heads” with clubs bosses, their recent feedback has been encouraging.

“I’ve given an assurance to the commission that we’ll roll up the sleeves, work hard and come out the other side,” Greenberg said.

He explained every part of the NRL including football, welfare, integrity, admin, development, clubs, states and headquarters will need slash costs. Greenberg foreshadowed more than 40 people could lose their jobs permanently.

“I think it will be more than that,” he said.

“It’s a terrible time but I’ve never been more committed. I’ve said that to (Australian Rugby League Commission chairman) Peter V’landys.”

The NRL chief executive confirmed that, like the players, he will be paid for one more month but then won’t be paid again until they return to field.

Greenberg said league expansion isn’t off the table but hasn’t been a priority given the pandemic.

“It might actually create more revenue for the game. It’s a conversation we have to continue. We’ll look at all opportunities,” he added.

- via AAP

SYDNEY’S OWN NRL BUBBLE

There’s been talk of the NRL creating a bubble of players and staff in Queensland due to the smaller number of coronavirus cases, but a Sydney option has now emerged.

The NRL’s innovation committee, headed up by Wayne Pearce, is looking into various scenarios of how the competition could restart and ARLC boss Peter V’landys is optimistic about getting things back underway by July 1 or possibly earlier.

While the Tangalooma Island Resort has already put plans in place if they’re selected to house clubs, Sydney Olympic Park is a genuine possibility, according to NRL 360 host Paul Kent.

“That precinct was designed and first used as an Olympic precinct, where it was a bubble. Certain people couldn’t get in without tickets, people couldn’t get in without certain authorisation,” Kent told Triple M NRL’s Saturday Sin Bin.

“The whole precinct was designed that way. They’ve been able to shut down that precinct several times before, they’ve got three hotels out there that between them have 545 rooms.

“They’ve got staff at the hotels who are willing to come in early, isolate themselves in the hotel and when the players arrive they already know they are clean.

“They have food, they keep the hotels running as normal which brings business to the hotels which of the 545 rooms, only six rooms are being used because people aren’t using them.

“It’s going to help the economy there, they walk across to ANZ or bus to Bankwest Stadium and play there. The NSW high performance centre is down the road where they can go and do their specific weights they need to do. If need be they can get a bus to Belmore or the Panthers academy.

“There are so many upsides to it and the players will be so minimally exposed to any danger.”

FITTLER WANTS REVAMPED ORIGIN TO RESTART SEASON

NSW Origin coach Brad Fittler has backed the idea that this year’s State of Origin series could restart the season and he’s also tossed up a relaxing of the eligibility rules to allow more players to be selected like Jason Taumalolo for Queensland.

Fittler said Blues players were keen on the idea of Origin getting things back underway and that Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast had been identified as a possible venue, however the games would need to be played behind closed doors.

“I’ve spoken to some of the players about it and they’re already pumped,” Fittler told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“The Origin series would be a good way of kicking things off, to show everyone that rugby league can lock down two teams for an extended period. And if that works, it could be a precursor to the rest of the NRL starting at some stage.

“We could base ourselves at our traditional location at Kingscliff, the Maroons could stay at Sanctuary Cove where they have in the past. I think it would work if done right.”

The selection of some Tonga players could be a possibility given their mid-season Test match against New Zealand was postponed.

“As much as it would hurt us, could you imagine Jason Taumalolo lining up in a Maroons jumper?” Fittler asked.

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