NRL set a date, May 28 and essentially said failure is not an option.
AFL have struggled to set a date, the best they've got is June is 'plausible'.
The AFL's geographical issues are a big hurdle. Their lack of leadership is a bigger hurdle.
They'll need help from the Vic government, so stand by for a review of the "no special treatment" rule.
What’s the lack of leadership you speak of?
They announced that they would shut the game down until 31 May as a minimum. This was always going to mean a 2 to 4 week training program would need to be completed by the players. This means mid June/July was always planned to be the earliest start date for the AFL.
It’s not lack of leadership or desire that stops the AFL from restarting early. It’s that they have completely different priorities, obstacles to overcome and are in a much better place financially than NRL to withstand the economic impact of COVID-19.
Back in March V’Landys said the NRL need the money or it will go bankrupt if they don’t get the game going in two months. Surprise surprise the NRL is desperate to restart before June.
As forceful as V’landys has been, its the financial hardship and desperation to avoid bankruptcy, that’s driven the NRL to push for the 28 May. They have no other choice. If they want to remain solvent they must re-start ASAP.
The AFLs strong, quiet and decisive leadership since 1986 has put them in a position where they can financially afford to sit back, avoid negative press, stick to their original plan, negotiate behind closed doors and see how the NRL go with the restart.
If you can financially afford to wait for a restart in July, why wouldn’t you? That’s smart business and strong leadership to stick to the original plan announced in March. It also allows your organisation more time to minimise risks of COVID-19 even further for players and the community.
Each code has completely different considerations to assess. So comparing the Codes re-start dates is just not an accurate indication of lack of leadership. The motivations behind each re-start date is a better indicator of quality leadership - and the AFL appear streets ahead of the NRL when it comes to leadership.
Shutting the AFL down until 31 May gave government and health authorities room to focus on getting on top of COVID-19 without unnecessary distractions. That’s great leadership and in the best interests of the nation. I can’t really say that for the NRL response over the past 6-8 weeks.
As for the Vic Gov’s no special treatment decision, I’d say that would be reviewed and reassessed weekly. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Storm are given the green light to train and play at aami park in the coming weeks or at least from 1 June - which is the date the AFL announced in March they would like to recommence.
And if this happened it would just reconfirm the AFLs solid leadership and decision making for selecting 1 June as the starting date way back in March.
