Hard yards at NRL League Central in logistics scramble
AFL CLUBS WARNED AGAINST TRAINING TOO SOON
RUGBY LEAGUE
PETER V’landys says the NRL is working around the clock to produce a new season draw as broadcaster demands and anti-vaxxers hold up the tenuous process.
The NRL is rushing to finalise a 20-round competition in time for the May 28 relaunch and may have to release the entire schedule after the premiership restarts.
The draw is generally a logistics nightmare, usually taking months to produce by a Canadian firm due to the numerous factors that have to be taken into account.
The NRL is attempting to produce a balanced competition in a matter of weeks and is still negotiating a new broadcast deal with Channel 9 and Foxtel a fortnight out from the mooted start.
Despite cutting it fine, ARL Commission chairman V’landys remains confident the NRL will start on May 28, even if it means settling on the first few rounds and finalising the draw at a later date.
The NRL must try to appease the demands of broadcasters and requests of clubs while creating a fair competition in a short period.
The banning of players who have rejected the flu vaccination from playing in Queensland has also thrown a spanner in the works.
The NRL wants to retain the integrity of the premiership, and not having top players such as Canberra’s Josh Papalii allowed to play in Queensland has created unwanted headaches.
V’landys said he was focused on finalising the broadcast deal and draw within the next week.
“The draw and finalising the broadcast deals are the two big ones for me,” he said.
“If we can start on the 28th of May that will be fantastic. There’s no reason why we won’t.”
The Cowboys are one team sweating on the release of the draw due to their taxing travel commitments.
With teams to travel to and from games on the same day, the Cowboys requested only night games to ensure they don’t have to leave Townsville unnecessarily early.
The Cowboys flew to Sydney on a game-day charter flight for their Round 2 match against the Bulldogs and won.
Cowboys football chief Peter Parr said the club had responded well to the travel changes.
“With the Warriors now in Australia, we will have to travel more than any other team,” Parr said. “We are used to that, but we would like some consideration given to avoiding 3pm games at least, because that would require a very early start with travel.
“We feel that would compromise our preparation somewhat. We need to talk to the players in more depth about how they handled the travel for that Bulldogs game.
“There’s no doubt it went well. Doing it once is one thing, but doing that for the next four or five months will be the test.”
CAIRNSPOST.COM.AU
*via a TPD claim