Anti-vax attitude may kill careers
ANTI-VAX NRL players risk having their contracts terminated by clubs due to their inability to travel interstate.
That’s the view of one Sydney NRL club chairman amid the governing body’s separate request for all 16 clubs to provide their vaccination numbers for every player and staff.
In what is considered the NRL’S first step towards implementing a game-wide vaccination policy, club chief executives have begun forwarding the relevant data to the governing body.
With time on its side until next season, and to also compare the different policies of the summer sporting codes, the NRL has allowed players and clubs to undertake their own steps towards vaccination.
However, the NRL needs the data to draw up policy related to the movement of vaccinated and unvaccinated players next season.
Bulldogs trio Nick Cotric, Jack Hetherington and Jackson Topine continued that process by receiving their jabs at on Wednesday. In total, 48 Bulldogs players, staff and family members received their vaccinations on Wednesday.
The personal safeguarding efforts of the Canterbury club are timely because Lee Hagipantelis, the principal for Brydens Lawyers and chairman of the Wests Tigers, said anti-vax players were in danger of having their contracts terminated.
Several players, including former Parramatta, NSW Waratahs and now Melbourne Storm forward Tepai Moeroa, and Raiders fullback Charnze Nicoll-klokstad, have taken to social media recently to offer their anti-vax views.
Hagipantelis said it was inevitable that anti-vax players would have their contracts cut – in much the same manner the National Basketball League has done – due to the likelihood of restricted interstate travel.
Illawarra Hawks import Travis Trice and New Zealand Breakers star Tai Webster were cut this week from their NBL contracts for opting against being vaccinated. Their decision meant they would be unable to travel freely within Australia.
Brydens Lawyers sponsors NBL franchise the Sydney Kings, providing Hagipantelis with an acute insight into a similar path he said NRL clubs would take towards unvaccinated players.
“This is a discussion I’ve had with the owner of the Kings, Paul Smith,’’ Hagipantelis told SEN radio’s Andrew Voss. “These organisations, the NRL and basketball, are employers of players who have a contractual relationship with the organisation to provide a particular service.
“That service, as per the contract, would include interstate and international travel.
“The fact that they would be unable to fulfil their contractual obligations by reason of their choice not to get vaccinated means that the contract is frustrated and perfectly entitled for the employers to terminate.
“Will that occur in the NRL? I’m absolutely convinced it will.
“Moving forward, we have had the Northern Territory already announce there will be no unvaccinated person getting into that state.
“If I recall correctly, Parramatta takes one game to Darwin each year, so that might be a significant problem for any Parramatta player who is not vaccinated.”