Forget the usual suspects, NRL clubs must take the reins on vaccines

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‘After that, my guess is that you will never hear from him again. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that… he is gone …’

The most short-sighted decision former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian made, sitting in the big seat *and managing the pandemic, was to offer the anti-vaxxers the mirage of a finishing line (*evidence adduced in ICAC this last fortnight points also towards Berejiklian ruing that she can’t have her time over, on unrelated matters…).

Though the sun shall definitely soar on December 1, signalling the dawn of summer, the risks which hitherto abounded concerning this wretched virus and its many mutant strains won’t just be magicked into the past tense.

A civilised society can’t burdensomely impinge on the basic civil liberties and freedoms of its citizens, to any greater extent than what’s absolutely necessary in the interests of the entire population. Those unvaccinated among us of course can’t just be sequestered from the rest of society for an indeterminate period, especially if it’d be disproportionately harsh to do so.

But COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere. Our unvaccinated fellow citizens, who are nonetheless eligible to be vaccinated, pose material risks to all of us. People remaining intentionally unvaccinated make conscious decisions to pose greater risks to vaccinated people. Vaccinated people will, as a consequence, remain susceptible to being infected by the unvaccinated, and in turn becoming infectious to others.

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo at Rugby League Central earlier this month.Credit:Getty

The best analogy I can conjure is that of the pinball machine, with the silver ball representing the virus. Vaccination programs are akin to layering foam on the inside walls. With each new layer, it becomes increasingly difficult, to the point of impossible, for the ball to bounce around anywhere.

I raise these matters in the context of comments made this week by the ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys concerning how NRL clubs should approach dealings with unvaccinated footballers when they report for pre-season training.

Summarised, V’landys’, and therefore presumably the NRL’s, position is that clubs should proceed with due caution in relation to the employment rights and the ongoing employment of unvaccinated players (and presumably non-playing staff). Clubs should exercise circumspection, so this reasoning goes, because rugby league’s governing bodies haven’t – and it would seem won’t – mandate that each club’s employees must be vaccinated.

This position has been formalised, in protocols released this week, which may well have the effect of unvaccinated NRL players mixing with their colleagues unrestricted come December.

Racing NSW, of which ARLC chairman Peter V’landys is CEO, is yet to announce a vaccine policy.Credit:Getty

It is starkly at odds with the position now adopted by the AFL, which has mandated that all players in its men’s and women’s competitions must be fully vaccinated by February 2022, lest they be prevented from playing and training.

Racing NSW (of which V’landys is CEO) has made no public announcement about requiring participants to be vaccinated. The government’s Combat Sports Authority in NSW – of which I am the chairman – has taken a similar approach. Conversely, Racing Victoria is requiring all jockeys, trainers, strappers et al to be double-vaxxed by no later than November 27.

There’s a balance which must be struck here, and legal Armageddon might ensue. The NRL, like all sporting codes, must walk a hair-trigger tightrope on such matters. You’ll recall that earlier this year, this masthead and the NRL itself jointly polled players en masse, regarding a multitude of topics. Eighty-two per cent of respondents opined that the NRL shouldn’t mandate that all players and staff be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Four-fifths isn’t a statistical anomaly that can be easily disregarded. What isn’t fleshed out, though, is the presumed spectrum of justifications as to why the position, now effectively taken by the AFL, would be so violently opposed in rugby league. I’d welcome the position being explained by that four-fifths cohort. The NRL can’t though just pander to the masses.

I were in charge of a club, I’d mandate my players and staff be vaccinated. I’d rather be on that side of the argument in any courtroom.

Professional rugby league comprises a labyrinth of linked workplaces where people coexist, intermingle and work in close physical proximity with each other. What happens if the NRL refrains from mandating inoculations, and then one club’s workplace has a mandatory vaccine policy, while another adopts a decidedly laxer stance? And then their teams play a match?

In the circumstances where highly effective vaccines, shielding against serious disease, are now available to the entire playing cohort of each NRL club, it makes precious little sense to entertain debate about whether mass vaccination in those workplaces is indeed a clever idea.

Not when the alternative is that a vaccinated person in that workplace might be infected by an unvaccinated person, with the vaccinated person still at a risk of becoming properly sick because they’ve had a poor immune response to the vaccine. Add into this mix that having unvaccinated players intertwined in a professional sense with vaccinated players could result in a vaccinated player becoming infectious, remaining asymptomatic, and then taking the virus home to their parents and others. It’s a veritable hornet’s nest.

From the NRL’s perspective and each club’s perspective in managing these “workplace” situations, the imposition of a vaccine mandate requires consideration of the complicated interplay between workplace laws, anti-discrimination limitations and what’s in each player’s contract. Yet it’s the employer – for present circumstances, each NRL club – that’s in the gun.

And that’s the real reason why the ARL Commission/NRL stance of not mandating vaccinations is flat out wrong and dangerous.

It’s the club that has the fundamental and non-delegable legal obligation under federal workplace safety laws, to ensure the health and safety of its employees as far as is reasonable and practicable. Also, as the employer the club has the power to direct its employees to be vaccinated in Australia if it’s lawful and reasonable. The club doesn’t need the NRL’s permission.

These are difficult legal matters, and cases which have funnelled through our judicial system, involving aged care workers and childcare workers, give serious pause for thought on adopting guillotine-like attitudes. But if I were in charge of a NRL club, I’d mandate all my players and staff be vaccinated, lest they be excluded from work when the pre-season commences. I’d rather be on that side of the argument in any courtroom.

In any event, we are surely suffering a collective case of extreme myopia if we believe that unvaccinated rugby league players will, in 2022, be able to perform all the inherent requirements of their employment without hindrance. The surest bet may be that Melbourne will win the Provan-Summons Trophy, simply because weakened opposition squads of fully vaccinated players will be the only ones allowed to play at AAMI Park.

COVID-19 ain’t going away, and its magic trick is that it may sometimes fool you that it could just evaporate, or morph into something the opposite of sinister. But it won’t. NRL clubs have to do what’s in the best interests of their whole employee cohort; appeasing the five per cent or thereabouts, who consciously elect to be unvaccinated, is inconsistent with discharging a responsibility to all employees.

That leaves the message that all this hand-wringing sends to the wider public. Don’t even start me on that.

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