THE New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) announced on Friday its board has made the difficult decision to immediately cancel nine major competitions for 2020, including the state's premier NSW Canterbury Cup in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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NSWRL has also cancelled the SG Ball, Harold Matthews and Tarsha Gale competitions - which all feature numerous Group Seven products in the Illawarra Steelers sides.
Other teams affected by NSWRL's decision are the Illawarra South Coast Dragons (under 23 men and women's country championships and Laurie Daley and Andrew Johns Cups) and St George Illawarra Dragons (Jersey Flegg) - all which contained South Coast talents.
The 12 teams in the NSW Canterbury Cup competition are all affiliated with NRL clubs and include players such as Milton-Ulladulla's Jack Murchie (Mounties) and Jayden Millard (Newtown), Albion Park-Oak Flats' Drew Hutchison (North Sydney) and Adam Clune (Dragons), Gerringong's Jackson Ford and Tyran Wishart (both Dragons), Nowra-Bomaderry's Jason Gillard (Dragons) and Shellharbour's Jayden Morgan (Dragons).
It includes the Warriors who had already agreed with the decision by NSWRL last week not to participate further when the competition was initially suspended to May 31.
While the Jersey Flegg Cup involves 13 teams, including the Victoria Thunderbolts and NRL affiliates.
No final decision has been made as yet on the Ron Massey Cup, Sydney Shield, the Women's Premiership as well as community football, including the South Coast Group Seven competition.
NSWRL chief executive David Trodden said the board had no option but to take this unprecedented action in response to the revised medical advice from government health officials and other experts, along with the various travel bans within Australia and New Zealand.
At the forefront of this decision is the health and wellbeing of the rugby league community, in particular the players, coaches, officials, volunteers and staff, as well as the broader community in general.
"It is devastating for everyone involved but the advice has changed dramatically since we suspended these competitions nine days ago," Trodden said.
"We have an obligation to be part of the solution for this pandemic, both for the rugby league community and also for the community more generally.
"This view was uppermost in the minds of the board.
"The likelihood of a shortened season in which to conduct the bigger competitions like NSW Canterbury Cup NSW and Jersey Flegg Cup was also a factor as the narrow window of opportunity to resume and complete the competitions meant it was not viable to go ahead.
"This issue is not as big of a concern for some of our other competitions and community football that can still be conducted over a shortened timeframe or as gala days or mini carnivals."
Trodden said the impact would be felt across the entire rugby league community in the state, including those working in the game.
It is, of course, the same impact as is being experienced in every industry on a global scale.
"We will continue to monitor the situation daily and review the status of our other competitions as circumstances change and updated information becomes available," he said.
"We are also aware that rugby league can play a role in the healing process of the community so when it is safe to play, we hope to give our players, volunteers, coaches and officials the opportunity to get back to doing what they love, even if it is for a shortened period of time."
Friday also saw the Queensland Rugby League Board cancel its four statewide competitions (Intrust Super Cup, BHP Premiership, Hastings Deering Colts and Mal Meninga Cup), which affects the likes of Jack Buchanan (Culburra), Harold Snell (Shellharbour) and Jesse Dee (Warilla-Lake South).