PLANS TO KICK ON

NRL clinging to hope despite new travel ban by Prime Minister

PETER V’landys has vowed that the NRL will play on and not follow the lead set by the AFL to shut down the game unless they are forced to.

In the wake of the AFL’s bombshell decision to postpone its season on Sunday afternoon, the Australian Rugby League Commission chairman told The Daily Telegraph that the NRL had not changed its stance.

V’landys was aware of the AFL’s move but said the NRL was in a better position to push forward because it had already implemented chartered flights to transport every team.

It is understood a meeting of the national cabinet last night would draft legislation to prevent all interstate travel that is deemed non-essential.

But this is also expected to include wiggle room for the individual state premiers to allow sports to continue and it will be judged on a case-to-case basis.

“I honestly don’t know (if this could change),” V’landys said, “it is moving so fast.

“We have said from day one that we will act in accordance with the medical health officers and the biosecurity experts.

“It is much harder for the AFL to be fair to them because they have got teams in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. So all these travel restrictions are certainly going to affect them.

“We are a little bit different. “If the health authorities allow it we will be still playing.

“Unless the chief medical officers say otherwise.”

V’landys thinks sporting teams will be able to travel interstate as long as they have proper health standards in place. He said there was no plan as yet to get all NRL teams to play out of one state.

“Not at this stage because while we can still have chartered planes to take them around and the states allow us like South Australia has, there is no difference,” V’landys said.

Earlier, V’landys said he had not received any confirmation from the government that the NRL season would be suspended immediately and said that the decision to implement private flights for all teams could save the game.

“We are just checking at the moment to see what this nonessential travel means but first off we charter our planes and secondly it is work travel,” V’landys said.

“The Prime Minister did say travel for work was still ok.

“We are going to investigate and see what it all means but I am not overly panicking at the moment because there is not enough detail.