How much longer can PVL and NRL hold out with coronavirus? - 22nd March 2020

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The show must go on, says ARLC chairman Peter V'landys. CREDIT: EDWINA PICKLES

By Andrew Webster

Rugby league had already circled the wagons when AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan fronted a media conference in Melbourne to declare his code was stopping the fight.

With dark circles under his eyes, as Hawthorn and Brisbane players were taking oranges at half-time at the MCG, McLachlan appeared on the verge of tears as he revealed the AFL juggernaut would grind to a halt by the end of the day and wouldn’t consider cranking up again until June.

Not the NRL. Oh no. Not Peter V’landys, the game’s belligerent chairman who had already declared to any journalist who has his phone number that the “show must go on!”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared earlier in the day that “non-essential travel” must cease.

“We’re essential!” V’landys essentially replied.

Right now, that depends on where you are standing. It depends on whether you are the chairman of the game, or a player, or a coach — or the small business owner who is about to lose his or her livelihood.

On Sunday night, as Parramatta and the Titans battled away before banks of empty seats — and a strategically placed mannequin — on the Gold Coast, the show was still going on and on and on.

For how much longer, though?

How much longer will rugby league’s working-class supporter base keep listening to instructions from Morrison, as well as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, as well as chief medical officers and many others, to self-isolate, to shut it down, to not go to work, to wear masks, to possibly lose your job, to wash your bloody hands, while professional footy players continue with apparent immunity on chartered flights up and down the eastern seaboard?

The AFL announcement shocked the NRL, putting enormous pressure on V’landys and Greenberg to close down the competition straight away.

A decision is likely on Monday, according to NRL sources, but it would not surprise if that decision was to keep playing.

Privately, there’s an acknowledgment that it might be taken out of their hands, with federal and state authorities placing further restrictions on our day-to-day lives as we attempt to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nobody should underestimate the gravity of what’s on the line: sustaining the economic viability of a sport that feeds a lot of mouths, and not just overpaid footballers, balanced with the greater need to stop a killer virus from spreading like wildfire.

A few weeks ago, V’landys was on the verge of edging Greenberg out the door as a power struggle between the pair came to a head.

Now, they are shoulder to shoulder as they cling onto every last hope of the competition continuing, for at least another round, or at least until April 1 when the next quarterly payment from the broadcasters drops.

Interestingly, Greenberg has been forced into a passive role as V’landys takes a scattergun approach with his public comments.

On Sunday night, the chairman flagged players taking pay cuts — even though they had been mentioned just a week ago as a “last resort”. Even though the competition is still being played when almost every other sport has stopped.

The public statements are confusing.

In the past week a whole range of spooky scenarios have been painted, from the competition running out of money in three months, then six weeks, then maybe even less than that.

The game had $145 million in the coffers, then it was $70 million, then even less than that.

Make no mistake: V’landys is the right man to have in rugby league’s corner right now. Heaven forbid his predecessors, Peter Beattie and John Grant, were at the helm in the time of such crisis.

But in aggressively playing on in the manner he is, he risks disenfranchising a whole stack of supporters who have more to lose than something to watch in their leisure time.

McLachlan struck the right tone on Sunday afternoon.

“Like every organisation in the country, we have to do everything that needs to be done to help slow the spread of this virus,” he said. “As a national code, we have responsibilities to consider the well-being of the nation.”

Rugby league looks like it’s putting rugby league first, the nation second, and even the most ardent supporter understands that is not right.

(The Sydney Morning Herald)

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Greg Tingle

Yes, this concise coverage summarizes things beautifully and puts the situation in perspective...the needs of the NRL first, or that of the needs of Australia first? Let's be honest here..if the players were only getting paid say in the region of $50 to $300 per football match, plus some other benefits, there would be no way the players (or their families) would want them playing football games in this global situation know as a Coronavirus epidemic. This sports business situation is what can happen when there's arguably too much money involved in a sports code, and apparently not enough moolah left in the coffers for a rainy day. Well, it's a rainy day and it's going to be raining cats, dogs and exotic animals for many months until the virus can be adequately contained. I feel for the players and their loved ones. I used to play rugby union at a high level for the Warringah Rats, but I never made a dollar from it. I did it for the love of sport alone. It would be a terrible tragedy if Australia's NRL players started getting diagnosed with the virus, and then it spread to their immediate social and business circle, then into the public at large. There are many aspects unknown of the Coronavirus, but we know it's highly contagious and a worldwide epidemic. Australia and the rest of the world has all but shut down, including lucrative American sports, except for the UFC at present, so that's a telling situation. It's big sports business vs big social and future of humanity business. If I'm overstating the gravity of this I'm willing to be corrected. I just know what I'm reading and hearing from the U.S and Australian government and health professionals including the World Health Organization. What side do you back? Most should figure it out, hopefully from the comfort of their own home. I love sport, but I love humanity and the future of our planet and overall society more. Thanks for reading old sport, as Gatsby used to say. Just adding some much needed humor to a unfunny matter. It's not Game Over forever, but how about Game On Pause until further notice?