"Due to the rapid rate of infection, we can no longer guarantee the safety of our players to continue to play," V'landys said. "Accordingly, we are suspending the season." The suspension of the competition, which was one of the last in the world still running, follows that of the AFL, which announced on Sunday it was on hold until May 31. The NRL had planned to play round three matches as late as Monday morning. Hours later, it was announced the competition would be indefinitely suspended. NRL chief Todd Greenberg and ARLC chairman Peter V'landys announce the indefinite suspension of the season. Credit:Getty "It is a deeply sad day but one of the most responsible days in our game's history," Greenberg said. "We would not have reached this point unless the conditions had shifted so dramatically and so exponentially.

"Today is a difficult day for the rugby league community, both here at head office and across all our clubs and players. Our priority is to do everything we can to give our game the best chance for a long and sustainable future. We have briefed all of our clubs this evening and all of our players have now been told." V'landys was not sure what state the competition would return in. Loading "Rugby league will survive in some way. I can't guarantee it will be in the same way it is at the moment. No one knows. No one knows how long this pandemic is going to last," he said. "We're ready for the worst and we are going to look at dealing with the worst. That's exactly what we will do in the next couple of weeks."

NRL teams had played behind closed doors in the second round of the season and the administration explored radical alternatives, such as shifting the entire competition to a remote town in Queensland, in an effort for it to continue and for the broadcast rights revenue to keep rolling in. For now, V'landys isn't clear as to whether that will roll in again, as games will not be played on April 1, when the next dose of quarterly revenue which keeps the game afloat was due to arrive. "We have been in dialogue with our broadcast partners. They've been great to date," he said. "It isn't as bad as what we could expect but until we sit down it's too premature to stay exactly what will happen." V'landys maintained the clubs faced a "catastrophic" few months as the game tries to keep its head above water without the latest quarterly payment of the $1.8 billion, five-year television deal. "It's catastrophic. I don't think we've ever come across a financial crisis like this. We're all affected, as Todd pointed out," V'landys said. "We've led by example by cutting our expenditure immediately and we are hoping the clubs will do the same very quickly.

"We will sit down with the clubs over the next week to look at how they're affected. This is a financial crisis. You can't understate it. It's probably the biggest financial crisis the game will ever face in its history. "But, co-operatively and united, we will deal with it and hopefully we will come out the other end." Loading And while V'landys said the game would do its best to keep all clubs viable, there is no guarantee they will all survive while games aren't played. "We will do our best to keep all our clubs viable," he said.