THE New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) board has established a plan to work towards a re-start of rugby league activities from July 2020.
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This will coincide with a common return date for some other winter sports across the State and the start of term three in the school year.
NSWRL chief executive David Trodden said the decision to work towards a shortened Community Rugby League season and a re-start of other abbreviated senior competitions from July 18 will be further reviewed and confirmed on June 1 June subject to the existing government advice available at the time.
Trodden said the decision took into consideration the NSW Public Health (COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement) Order 2020 which is currently preventing sport from being conducted and expires at midnight on June 29 June 2020 (unless further extended).
"Accordingly, the earliest possible return date is June 30, unless the NSW Government decides to lift the Public Health order earlier," Trodden said.
"Most winter sports favour working towards a return date of July 18 at the end of the next school holiday period, with a return to training on July 1 July, subject to the status of the public health in the interim.
"The Board and Management of NSWRL have been continuing to closely monitor developments with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to strictly follow the government advice so that we will only return to playing footy when it is deemed safe to do so."
"The NSWRL and everyone in our rugby league community need to be responsive to the continual changes to the government advice around risks to public health for the broader community, and if it becomes apparent that a July start date is not feasible, we will adjust and reassess.
"The decision to work towards starting rugby league competitions from 18 July 2020, and to resume training from July 1 July applies to the following:
- Community football, involving more than 100,000 boys, girls, men and women across the state to start. The 2020 season was originally due to begin on April 4 when it was postponed in March. All clubs and leagues are encouraged to continue to take registrations beyond the traditional 30 June registration cut-off date.
- Ron Massey Cup, Sydney Shield and Harvey Norman Women's Premiership to resume. One round had been played when the competitions were suspended on 27 March.
In relation to the nine competitions cancelled by the NSWRL Board on March 27, the board has determined that no premiers and no player of the series awards will be declared for any of those competitions for 2020. This applies to the following:
- Major competitions: Canterbury Cup NSW, Jersey Flegg Cup, Women's Country Championships and men's under 23s Country Championships
- Junior representative competitions: SG Ball Cup, Tarsha Gale Cup, Harold Matthews Cup, Andrew Johns Cup and Laurie Daley Cup.
