Tuesday 17 March 2020 12:57, UK
Sky Sports rugby league expert Terry O'Connor on how the decision to suspend the season until at least April 3 is likely to affect clubs and players...
I think it was inevitable rugby league would follow other sports in postponing the season in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. When people are losing their lives, it shows there are more important things in life than sport - at any level.
You don't know what to say because it's a really tough one. Rugby league has always tried to have that stiff upper lip and say "we'll continue going", which they're doing, for now, with the NRL in Australia.
Rugby league season suspended until April
But if anything was to happen to a player, member of staff or someone who happened to be there like St John's Ambulance or doctors, it's just too much.
I've talked to some players and they genuinely do want to play. Yes, you've got people like Remi Casty who doesn't want to play or infect people if he gets something, or cause harm to his loved ones.
On the other hand, there are other players who have just come off the back of a really hard pre-season six weeks ago, have trained for three and a half months who want to continue until it's an absolute necessity they stop.
Looking at it from a player's point of view, they don't know whether they can train - so is there going to be another mini pre-season depending on how long this goes on for?
They can go running in a field, but I know other sports have told players they're not allowed to go into public gyms.
I don't know a lot of rugby league players who've got their own gym, so you can't be expected to go straight back into the sport at 100mph after not doing weights and being at your absolute maximum.
The lads are so powerful now and if you don't do weights for six weeks, and you're not allowed to use team or public gyms, there would have to be some sort of a pre-season, which might only take a couple of weeks because muscle memory is really good. Not only is it physically that you need topping up, but mentally as well.
As far as the season itself goes, if you didn't take player welfare into account and it wasn't anything to do with finances I would say the best way to do it would be to cancel the six loop fixtures if the suspension of the Super League season goes past April 3 and take it up from there.
There needs to be some sort of plan and something coming out for the fans as well. They've paid for a season ticket to watch every game, so is there going to be an impact on them going back to clubs asking for x-amount of money returning? It's a really dangerous financial position at the moment.
Having been involved in club rugby, I know a lot of clubs live month to month and week to week in terms of bringing in the money to pay wages. If you're going two, four or six weeks without income through the shops, hospitality or sales, that has a massive effect on paying players' wages.
It's not just clubs in Super League, but the Championship, League One and the amateur game as well because they rely on revenue.
Any business can't plan for the unknown and there are not a lot of clubs I know of in the game who have a pot of money sat there for contingencies. It's not like when we used to play in the winter and games were postponed because of frost either.
This is unprecedented and it's not just clubs, it's the knock-on effects on businesses around the grounds. People go to them for food, after work or on game-day, they go to the pubs, clubs and cafes, and they're going to have to do without that business until at least April 3 as well.
I would be pretty confident in saying if we're talking a couple of months without an injection of cash from owners or benefactors, a couple of clubs will be in trouble. To get through one month will be pretty hard and to get some help from Super League or the RFL would put strains on both of those.
Then you have to consider even sponsors, whether they're a local company who do it because they love the club or are a big shirt sponsor, will be impacted.
The question then becomes will clubs get paid for the sponsorship on their advertising hoardings and shirts, or their programme sponsorship? It's not just the walk-up to the game, it will be right across the board.
The impact is massive, whether it is on fans, clubs, businesses which support the clubs and players - not to mention making sure players are physically and mentally okay when they do take to the field again.
