The NRL won’t follow the AFL’s suit in making COVID vaccination mandatory to play the code and complete pre-season training in 2022.
With the AFL coming out on Thursday stating that all players and staff will need to be fully jabbed to keep their jobs – barring medical exemptions - The Daily Telegraph’s David Riccio can’t see the NRL doing the same.
Instead, Riccio says the NRL will work on a policy that unvaccinated players will need to work under despite early numbers looking promising.
“The NRL will claim they’re working on a policy for basically players that aren’t vaccinated, that’s where their policy will finish,” Riccio said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“I think there’s a bit of a bet each-way, they’re playing the numbers.
“To be fair, they’re in a pretty strong position at this time, three quarters of players contracted to a top 30 contract (league-wide) have received their first jab.
“Eight of the 16 clubs, as of two weeks ago were at 80 per cent first-jab.”
While most clubs are nearing fully-jabbed rates, Riccio believes “at least one player” from every club will refuse the vaccination, which will lead to them working under “different rules” to their teammates.
“However, I’m not saying there won’t be an issue, I’m saying there will be,” Riccio said.
“Across the 16 clubs, I think every club will have at least one player that won’t vaccinate.
“That’s going to create some issues and that is where I come back to the policy that the NRL is working on, for those (unvaccinated) players.
“They will be operating under a different rhythm to every other player in their team, we saw it in the NBA, we saw it in the NFL and how players are treated and have to operate under different rules.
With professional athletes in Melbourne needing to be fully vaccinated to return to work per government guidelines, Riccio says the Storm could be the first club with “100 per cent” compliance.
“They key though, on the back of the AFL’s yesterday, the Melbourne Storm fall under that same category as well where every single Storm player will need to be vaccinated,” Riccio said.
“I spoke to the Melbourne Storm CEO yesterday Justin Rodski, and he confirmed that he’s very confident that every one of his players will be 100 per cent vaccinated.”
The NRL is yet to release their COVID vaccination guidelines, but NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has previously stated that the competition will leave the decision “up to the players”.