The NRL tricked the Warriors
be able to go, some players wouldn’t have left New Zealand.
So the club took the NRL’s advice and applied for exemption for the players. This was eventually granted by the Australian Border Force, and they flew out on May 3.
Soon after the players went to Tamworth, the Warriors went through the same exercise to get the families to Australia. The process involved working out which family members needed an exemption and which didn’t, through being Australian passport holders or former residents. Some families wanted to go straight away.
Others wanted to hold off for a couple of weeks, to see if a transTasman bubble would open, which would mean they wouldn’t have to spend two weeks in quarantine on arrival.
So exemption applications were put in. Then there was silence, with nothing coming back to the club about what was happening.
Then, a few weeks ago, the Warriors were told the exemptions wouldn’t be granted.
For the players and their families the news was devastating. They had gone from all but being guaranteed that they’d be able to reunite, to a situation where no one knew when they’d meet up again.
The four players who’d been cut adrift from their families, understandably, wanted to go home and felt they’d been tricked into agreeing to go to Australia by promises that couldn’t be kept.
The situation was spiralling out of control – there was nothing the club could do about it. The NRL, or in particular, Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys, needed to step in and deal directly with the Australian government.
V’landys agreed to a meeting with the affected players, the leadership group and interim coach Todd Payten on Saturday, where he asked for a few weeks’ grace to get it sorted.
By setting a date of July 19, it put a line in the sand, with V’landys knowing he had a deadline to get the exemptions through and that this saga would come to an end, one way or another.
V’landys is known to be understanding of the situation the players are in and has always expressed his gratitude for the sacrifices they’ve made.
However, the number of coronavirus cases in Victoria over the past couple of weeks has made the prospect of a transTasman bubble less likely in the near future.
V’landys pulled off great negotiations to get the NRL resuming on May 28. But it is likely to need an incredible act of diplomacy, with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison getting involved, to get the families over now.
The Warriors are already planning for how they’ll manage without these players over the rest of the season.
If more loan players are brought in from other clubs, they’re unlikely to be of the standard of those leaving, which makes it even harder for Payten to revive the club’s fortunes.
Softball New Zealand is mourning the death of legendary pitcher Bill Massey – the personable hurler dubbed ‘Mr Softball’ in his heyday on the mound. Massey, 83, died, surrounded by his family in Lower Hutt yesterday morning. Softball New Zealand announced his passing ‘‘with great sadness’’ on its Facebook page, noting Massey was ‘‘a member of the team colloquially known as the Pilgrims, and attended the first two men’s world championships in Mexico City, 1966, and Oklahoma City in 1968. ‘‘He was dubbed Mr Softball by the New Zealand media at the peak of his career as one of the world’s most feared pitchers.’’ Massey was inducted into the World Softball Hall of Fame in 2019. He pitched New Zealand to a bronze medal at the 1966 world championships in Mexico City, won eight Beatty Cup inter-provincial titles with Hutt Valley between 1958 and 1967 and six John Lennon national interclub crowns with Railways.