Players up for a fight to the end
BUT CARVELL IN WARNING
RUGBY LEAGUE players are prepared to put their bodies on the line to complete the season – but their welfare must be taken into account.
That is the verdict of former Great Britain prop Garreth Carvell.
Carvell is the head rep for the GMB union, who account for around 65 per cent of rugby league’s players across three professional divisions.
Leeds chief executive Gary Hetherington, inset, raised eyebrows last week by saying he did not want to hear whingeing about player welfare over multiple games a week.
But Carvell said: “The players are willing to do anything they can – as long as there’s transparency and honesty between everybody.
“Historically, the trust between players and clubs has diminished somewhat and we’re trying to build that back up.
“The feedback from players is that they are more than ready to play their part, but everything needs to be a massive joint effort.The welfare side of it always has to be a consideration and we’ve spoken to the RFL at length about it.
“Whenever they’ve laid out their scheduling recently, player welfare has been at the forefront of it and that’s common sense.
“I think what Gary was trying to say is that there are going to be extra fixtures in the calendar and there’s no doubt there is. There might be times when players have to play three times in 10 days.
“But that might only happen maybe two or three times. For a start, people who haven’t been working won’t be able to afford to go to three games a week regularly and, from a quality point of view, the matches would be terrible, with players’ fatigue putting them at higher risk of injury. But the players know that certain things will have to happen once this is over with and they have no problem playing their part.” Carvell has also taken on board Toronto coach Brian McDermott’s plan to play hour-long matches in four 15-minute quarters, and has his own proposal to help the situation if matches become more frequent.
He added: “I’m willing to listen to anything and having hour-long games split into four would mean that players have more rest.
“If we do need to play more games it might be worth looking at that and I’d like to see the number of substitutes allowed being increased, perhaps having extra players on the bench for injuries.”