We will be back

I reckon all these media stories we are seeing about the death of rugby league as we know it are way off the mark. If history has taught us anything it is that sport is a very resilient beast. Like something out of Greek mythology, the more people try to kill it, the stronger it becomes.

You only have to look at some of the crisis that have faced our major sports over the years – and see how they have bounced back – to realise that rugby league, union, soccer and all the other codes currently under threat are still a long way from extinction.

In fact, many of the headlines we are reading at the moment could have been reprinted from 30, 40, 50 or more years ago without changing a word. Remember World Series Cricket? When Kerry Packer turned the game on its head back in 1977 the purists said cricket would never be the same again. In a way they were right – WSC dragged it out of the dark ages and made it better.

To read the editorials when the USA boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980 and the Australian government put pressure on our athletes to do the same, - or when the USSR returned serve by staying away from the LA Games four years later – the Olympic movement was dead and buried. Now here we are 40 years on and the IOC is more than strong enough to handle the  postponement of Tokyo 2020.

US baseball and football have survived scandals and strikes, and as for the NRL, if there is a game that has weathered more turmoil than rugby league, I have yet to hear of it.

The Super League War; Storm and Bulldogs salary cap scandals and any number of player behaviour dramas were all supposed to be the death knell, yet nothing has slowed its progress, let alone derailed it.

I reckon it will just be a matter of time before we are all back cheering on our favourite team and favourite sport.

We just have to stay safe, stay strong and stay at home until the government signals the restart of play.

What do YOU reckon?