gUt
Coach
- Messages
- 16,935
Missing a secret ingredient.. how about a red hanky on top for garnish
Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/postma...hasing-baggy-green-dream-20200417-p54kxx.html
Burst bubbles
The idea of bringing back the NRL in late May, three days before the official start of the winter flu season, followed by the AFL a month or so later when it will be in full swing? Funny you should ask. Sports Illustrated had a close look at it this week, with the idea of putting American sports stars of the NBA, NFL and MLB in “biodomes” – our version of sealed bubbles.
Advertisement
They wrote: “What if the person delivering groceries to the biodome walks by someone who coughs on the lettuce and a week later, a player tests positive? Is there an option other than shutting down the whole operation for 14 days? “‘No,’’ says infectious diseases expert at Washington University Carl Bergstrom. “And that’s really the end of the conversation. Even if we can start this, we almost certainly can’t finish it. Just look at South Korea and Japan, which both believed they had the outbreak under control and have since pushed back the start dates of their professional baseball seasons. In response to ESPN’s reporting on the MLB biodome scenario this week, former Medicare and Medicaid head Andy Slavitt tweeted, ‘‘I’m as big a sports fan as anybody, but this is reckless. Leagues need to follow the science & do the right thing.”
RELATED ARTICLE
NRL 2020
'You could lose your eye': Sam Burgess opens up on grand final injury
Win game or lose eye?
Here is Sam Burgess on what a doctor told him at half-time of the 2014 grand final, after he smashed his face in the opening hit-up against James Graham’s head: “He said, ‘Well I just need you to warn you that you could lose your eye if you take a collision to it. And don’t blow your nose.’ I said, ‘No problem’.” I defer to my legal betters. If the doctor knew it was that bad, was there not a duty of care to take him off the field?
Life and mass death
You have to admire, yes, the straightforwardness of Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in these times of the plague? While our own Deputy Premier John Barilaro carries on as if the only thing that counts is getting rugby league players back on the paddock, and bugger the risk to public health, Palaszcczuk has been the grown-up in the room. Her words were more elegant than this, but they boiled down to: “Are you freaking kidding? On a matters of life and death – life and mass death – we are not fooling around on this. We’re not shutting down everything else, including industries that employ tens of thousands, and opening up league just because you miss your footy. Closed borders means just that, so you can start with no State of Origin this year, because our players aren’t going to come across the border to get your poxy NSW germs.”
RELATED ARTICLE
STATE OF ORIGIN
Queensland Premier hopes State of Origin isn't played in 2020
Still, I liked the solution proffered by former Wallaby hooker Bernie Carberry, sent to me an in an email this week. “Just build a field on the NSW/QLD border. The halfway line is the state border. The referee can keep teams in their own half/state. The only way to score points is by field goals kicked from your own half/state.”
Yes, friends. An entire match made from long-distance golden points! It just might work.
Fantasy island
Oh stop it. I know, I know. The NRL are going to prove to the government how they can make their work environment safe for their workers, the players, to play and work in. That’ll be great. While the rest of us have to stay 1.5 metres from each other at all times, wash our hands and all the rest, the NRL will show – and the government will nod in approval, while still wagging its stern finger at us – how that should apply to everyone else, except two teams sweating all over each other for 80 minutes. And then – no, seriously I said– the government will explain how the rest of us should not be complacent about relaxing a culture of social distance, even though the television will be filled with league being back on. I repeat.
The only way it could work would be for either genuine total isolation on a resort island or ... what goes for rugby league goes for everyone
So many points, so little time!
As this goes to press the NRL is still resolute on restarting the comp on May 28 even as every other industry involving close contact is shut down. They will, we are assured, wash their hands both before and afterwards.
In response to the NRL's insistence, however, both the Queensland and Victorian premiers have been clear: “Not on your Nelly.” With commendable leadership they have dismissed it out of hand and Channel Nine – a little late in the piece and maybe for not entirely the same reasons – is also not convinced.
Who is missing right now is the NSW government. I think. For I cannot follow it. I believe we had, yes, the Police Commissioner signing a letter saying it was OK? Or maybe that was the Health Minister signing a letter giving a big tick to the police force?
The point is, where are you, Premier Gladys?
Does this get the go-ahead, or not? Are some people going to be still banned from seeing Grandma through anything bar a centimetre of glass, while others are not allowed to even attend the funerals of their nearest and dearest, but . . .
But it is OK for the rugby league lads to wrestle sweat and burst breath all over each other for five or six days a week, before they go home to their families? Is that your position? If so, I respectfully ask:
What is your own case for rugby league exceptionalism?
If it is good enough for them, why is it not good enough for the rest of us?
Personally, this seems to me to be absolute madness, Premier. If you are going to open things up, so be it. But giving the green light to rugby league while the rest of us will have been stuck on red at the traffic lights for the past two months seems to be taking an insane and unnecessary risk.
Essentially, the NRL chair Peter V’landys is arguing the case of rugby league exceptionalism, that the social isolation rules that apply to everyone else should not apply to them.CREDIT:JOHN SHAKESPEARE
With the admittedly huge exception of the Ruby Princess, your government has done well on coronavirus. But are you really going to be forcing the resignation of your own Minister, Don Harwin, and nailing a $1000 fine to his head, just for going to his own holiday home on the Central Coast – you negligent bastard, how dare you!? – while saying that from late next week the leaguies are good to start training? We know rugby league has sway in this town, but does it have that much sway?
That would be like saying proper resources for community and kids sport can get nicked, while we put billions of dollars to stadiums for rugby league and . . .
And, oh, wait!
Gladys, it is a nonsense, and you must know it. If you give the green light to league, you must give the green light to us all. If that is the case, can we all be told, too?
At the very least you, and the NRL, have to make a compelling case for rugby league exceptionalism. Right now, it ain’t obvious.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/why-it-s-high-time-gladys-put-the-nrl-in-its-place-20200424-p54n1f.html
Peter V’landys. His psychological grip on the denizens of rugby league seems to have strengthened in recent weeks. Odd that a bloke unknown to the broad mass of the league community – at least as a football figure – until a couple of years ago should now be the one laying down the law and cracking the whip even to people who’ve been in the game for 40 years!
My money's on Hoppa for sure.
