Game of rugby league to tackle greatest test
FORGET the intense code war, debates about the junior game and ongoing safety discussions.
Townsville and Districts Rugby League chairman Ross Anderson has declared COVID-19 as the toughest battle the sport has faced in North Queensland.
With TDRL junior and senior competitions put back until at least May because of the unfolding pandemic, Anderson said the code was in for an uphill fight but would come through the other side.
He said the QRL made the right decision to suspend competitions across Queensland.
“Well and truly,” Anderson said.
“We actually jumped the gun ahead of the QRL and called off ff our first two rounds, which were meant to have every very game played at t Brothers.
“Followowing the release from om the QRL RL we also so c l o s e d down all training sessions indefindefinitely.
“If we can get back on n the field from May 1 our fi first round d will ill b be May 8 and we’ll run the season on a home-and-away basis and push the grand final back one week.”
Anderson said depending on how long the virus hangs around local competitions may need to be scrapped for the entire year.
“Unlike other parts of the country we can’t afford to have players running around in October and November up here,” he said.
““There’s an a awful lot of fact factors that need to b be taken into consi consideration when we make a decision lik like this. hi
“Our minimum for holding a competition at this stage is two rounds of home and away (each team plays each other twice) and a finals series.
“There’s no way you could play each other just once and have it as a fair competition.”
Anderson backed the governing body and its aligned clubs to stand strong in the face of uncertainty.
He believed the code would make it through 2020 even if a single tackle wasn’t made.
“It will have a negative impact but the clubs should be all right financially,” he said.
“They may have some tough times ahead but they all should be OK.
“Some of the smaller clubs may be affected more if we’re not playing, but there hasn’t been a lot of cash outlay from them yet because we hadn’t started.
“Clubs with their own grounds will be impacted the most because they’re still going to have to pay for the upkeep when no one will be playing on the fields.
“The finals series is where the TDRL makes our money for the year. But (if it doesn’t go ahead) the TDRL is financially strong at the moment.”
With no medical expert able to confidently predict how COVID-19 will play out, Anderson admitted sport would be one of the last things on people’s minds.
“I think it’s a very real possibility that people won’t come back to rugby league t h i s season if we get on the field. “The l o n g e r we can’t get games in means the virus is still around, meaning some players may lose their job and they will have a lot more to worry about than just footy.”
The chairman said the rugby league community had always been a family and it wasn’t just players who were going to feel the squeeze. “We’ve got referees in j u n i o r l e a g u e who do games week in and week out and receive money for their time. As it stands now they’ll have to look for other casual work on weekends, which by the looks of things could be hard to find.
“There’s canteen people, ground people and club staff everywhere who are feeling this. We’ve also had to cancel the wheelchair competition. It was our inaugural year and we had a four-team competition that was going to be run over five weeks with a grand final.
“It was a tough decision because it’s a great adaptation to our game, it’s all about inclusiveness.”