NRL Head of Football Graham Annesley has explained how the 2022 season will negotiate the surge of COVID-19 cases in Australia, after two years without a case in the competition.
The league has conceded there will often be cases among or around players and staff, and have set out a new strategy focused on rapid testing and “sensible precautions.”
New South Wales recorded 29,830 new cases on Tuesday, and the state’s highest daily death toll at 36.
Nearly half the positive results in the state were detected with rapid antigen tests.
“It’s a different environment for us going into 2022,” Annesley told SEN 1170 Mornings.
“Generally speaking over the last two years, our approach has been about trying to eliminate COVID from the competition.
“To keep it out of the competition, and to continue operating as per normal, and that’s been reflected in government policy.
“With Omicron of course, it’s now widespread in the community, just about everyone that you know has been in contact with it in some way.”
After the competition made it through the 2020 and 2021 seasons without a single COVID-19 case, nearly every NRL club was impacted over Christmas.
Penrith, St George Illawarra and Brisbane were among the worst-affected, with 16 Broncos players having tested positive in early January.
“It is going to be in and around our clubs,” Annesley accepted.
“We’re moving from an elimination strategy to more of a management strategy, and trying to identify those who have got it before they enter the club.
“We’ve had players in bubbles over the last two years, they’ve been very tightly controlled. They’ve had to live in each others’ pockets.
“That’s not the situation at the moment.”
Protocols have been loosened over summer and players have lived as normal; Annesley says the rules will tighten ahead of the season but be “nowhere near” as severe as in the last two years.
“We’re combining that with a testing regime, which we haven’t been able to do in the past,” he revealed.
“Each day when players turn up for training they have to undergo a rapid test, in a controlled environment with people who oversee the testing.
“(It’s) to give us a much better chance of picking up players that are infected before they enter the group.
“If they’re negative they’re able to go about a normal day, and if they’re positive they go and isolate as every other member of the community would.”
Annesley confirmed the testing regime and guidelines would be part of a centralised response, rather than delegating the responsibility to the clubs.
“Part of the testing that we’ve introduced is a recording mechanism,” Annesley explained.
“Those results are forwarded to our medical advisors, so we are able to keep a handle on how it’s going.
“It’s no secret that since just prior to Christmas a number of our clubs have been heavily affected.
“Thankfully we’re in the offseason and it’s giving us time to come to terms with this. Hopefully, the wave starts to wane as we get closer to playing games.
“But our protection is primarily around our testing regime and our players taking some sensible precautions to minimise the risk of them picking it up.”
Postponements and hiatuses aren’t on the agenda, with the NRL fearing the financial ripple effect.
“That has massive consequences for the entire economic environment that we operate in,” Annesley warned.
“Not only in terms of fans and people who have bought tickets to games and season tickets but our broadcast partners, player salaries - our total revenue stream.
“Our primary objective is to continue playing, and that’s why we’ve got such a strict testing regime. We will lose players, as we have done over the last month or so.
“Hopefully, if we can minimise those losses, then clubs will be affected to a smaller degree, but our primary objective is to keep the competition going.”
Penrith and Manly-Warringah will open the season on Thursday March 10 at BlueBet Stadium.