SPORT NRL adopts racing protocol
THE NRL will adopt the strictest biosecurity measures and check the temperature of players every day in order to return on June 1.
On a mission to achieve clearance from health authorities to resume the competition after suspending it due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NRL are confident they are just two weeks away from being able to declare the season is back on. The NRL have already told every club that players will receive a minimum four-week pre-season of training, which means that all 16 clubs could be back at work on May 1 – just 26 days away.
The NRL plan to copy the biosecurity regulations that have kept the horse racing industry going to allow their own return to play.
ARL Commission chairman
Peter V’landys is also the CEO of Racing NSW, and that gives the NRL a huge advantage in designing a comeback plan focused on making certain the health and safety of the players, coaches and staff is paramount and risk of infection minimal.
The racing industry temperature checks everyone who enters the track, segregates jockeys, bans interstate riders and trainers and puts restrictions on how horses arrive in the state.
So strict are the health guidelines on race day, Australia’s champion trainer Chris Waller recently declared he felt visiting his local supermarket was more hazardous than working at the track.
“One thing racing has proved is that you’ve got to have the harshest possible biosecurity measures in place,” V’landys said. “And to that point, our leading trainer (Chris Waller) said he's safer at the racecourse than he is at the supermarket.
“A jockey also said he went to a hospital and there were 10 times more biosecurity measures at Rosehill racecourse than there was at the hospital.
“We temperature check everyone that walks in. We segregate everyone into six different rooms. When the jockeys are talking to the trainers, they've got to be 2m apart. We go above what is required.
“If we get back as I’m confident we will, every NRL player will absolutely be temperaturechecked – every day. There will be harsh biosecurity measures in place.”
V’landys said he was talking every day to the game’s innovation committee, led by ARLC commissioner Wayne Pearce, to assess all “available options” to return on June 1.