ARL Commission chairman Peter V'landys has hit back at the AFL community over criticism surrounding the NRL's eagerness to return to the field amid the coronavirus pandemic.
All 16 NRL teams will undergo a biosecurity session today and begin training this week as the competition gets set for a season relaunch on May 28.
The NRL's willingness to return so quick has come under the microscope with a number of key AFL figures questioning the game's motive.
Collingwood Magpies president Eddie McGuire criticised V'landys last week, saying "the AFL wants to show social leadership, they don't want to be out like the NRL spruiking different ideas, we're going to be model citizens."
Responding to the backlash he's received from the southern state, V'landys admitted attacks against him are nothing new but were rather "ill-informed" comments in this instance.
"I'm used to that sort of rhetoric from Victoria, it's nothing new for me," Mr V'landys told The Herald Sun.
"We set ourselves a challenge and a target date. Everyone has got behind it in the rugby league world and if we achieve it, it's an achievement by the game itself.
"So those people (within the AFL) should really have been concentrating on their own business and their own activities without making ill-informed comments about something they know nothing about."
AFL columnist Caroline Wilson back in March shortly after both codes shutdown their competitions, criticised V'Landys for asking the government for financial assistance.
"At a time when people are falling ill, potentially dying, businesses going under and people losing their jobs, to open the conversation by demanding public money demonstrated a lack of grace," she said.
"Your behaviour reminded me of those selfish panic merchants who have stripped supermarket shelves and have highlighted the wort of Australia's response to this plague."
When asked why Victorian sporting associations believe they can run sports better than NSW, V'landys said: "I've got myself into trouble many times before on this question so maybe I should just leave this one alone. I'm already the No.1 dartboard down there, you can't go any higher.
"Look, I found some of the alarmist rhetoric disappointing because when we stopped the competition, the infection rate was 25 per cent."
"In the last 18 days it has been less than one per cent in NSW.
"We set ourselves a target date and we were going to wait, over those eight weeks, to see if that infection rate continued to go down.
"When these people (AFL figures) were making comments they were ill-informed because they were really making the comments as if it was happening that day – but it wasn't happening on that day – it was happening on the 28th of May. And as people have seen already, things are changing.
In defence of the ARL Commission chairman, Richmond premiership coach Damien Hardwick applauded V'landys' leadership last month.
"I really applaud the NRL for their aspirational type leadership of giving a date (May 28)," Hardwick said.
"I love a carrot so to speak, I love a date to work with.
"I think the really challenging aspect for us (AFL) as coaches and players at the moment is we haven't got a date so the motivation of when to start your training to prepare for that date.
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/peter-vlandys-hits-back-at-ill-informed-afl-critics/d9ab617d-5fa3-4f6e-8c9d-64c2d5e3324d
0 Comments