Rugby league guru Phil Gould admits teams will face a difficult decision over self-reporting COVID-19 cases for the 2022 NRL season.
Gould, the current general manager of football at the Bulldogs, was queried on how teams will approach the season when coronavirus cases take their toll on playing groups.
Speaking on Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles with Gus podcast, Gould, a former coach of two premiership triumphs, was asked what a team like Penrith might be forced to do in the hypothetical situation in which star halfback Nathan Cleary tests positive on grand final day.
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“Do you think they’re going to tell anyone?” Gould shot back when queried by host Mat Thompson.
“I’m asking the question, on the morning of the grand final and your number one player tests positive to COVID, are you going to tell anyone? Are you going to leave him out?
“You do a Jerry Seinfeld here, what’s the protocol? What do you do?
“God knows what’s happening with COVID. I don’t know what it’s going to look like in three or six months’ time… no one knows.
“This might be the start of something, this might be the end. I don’t know and no one knows. Whatever it is, we’ve got to learn to live with it.”
The Cleary hypothetical is an extreme scenario yet already several clubs have had to stand down players and officials for the opening round due to COVID-19 protocols and/or the effects of illness.
Adam Reynolds will miss the Broncos’ Friday night blockbuster with the Rabbitohs as he battles symptoms having tested positive, while new Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon will be made to wait an extra week to make his head coaching debut after testing positive to the virus this week.
However, the honest approach taken to reporting COVID-19 cases in Round 1 may be harder to follow at the pointy end of the season when the trophy goes on the line, if Gould’s line of thinking is echoed by football bosses across the competition.
The stakes are high enough that Paul Gallen suggested in his column for Wide World of Sports this week that clubs may direct their players into bubbles, despite the fact the NRL has moved past the strict protocols that governed player movements in 2020 and 2021.
Gould said it’s up to clubs to enforce hygiene protocols to keep their playing group safe.
“Every precaution, we (Canterbury), and I’m sure every club has done the same, we have sanitisers put on every wall and all around the building, we make sure everyone’s washing their hands and cleaning their area,” Gould explained.
“If you lift up a weight you’ve got to clean it. When you pack your gear away, you’ve got to clean it.
“We’ve put in new industrial washing machines and dryers to give them fresh towels… we’ve gone through a great expense to make sure everything is hygienic as possible.
“The players are constantly warned about it and they’ve got a responsibility to keep themselves healthy and fit, not just for them and their families, but their teammates. Everyone understands how difficult it is.”
One preventative approach Gould spoke about was ensuring that players of similar positions aren’t in the same room together while travelling.
He said Canterbury will ensure that their two playmakers are never in a situation where one could be linked as a close contact or even pass on the virus to the other.
“You’ve got to keep them (players) on point and make sure you keep reminding them because it only takes one little slip and all of a sudden two or three,” he said.
“Even how you room players when you go away. If we go away, there’s no way we will put two playmakers in one room in case they got it (COVID-19) because then the other one’s gone too.
“If we go away, there’s no way we can put two players in similar positions in joint rooms, otherwise you’re looking for two replacements in the one position.”
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