I reckon if we’re going to get the crowds back to footie it is going to take a team effort.

You’ve got to take your hat off to the NRL for all the work they’ve done behind the scenes in clearing the way for a May 28 return. The amount of juggling and tap-dancing that Peter V’landys and Wayne Pearce have had to do to keep governments, health authorities, clubs and players all happy could get them top billing at Barnum and Bailey’s circus.

But their almost super-human efforts have been focused on one thing only – getting the players back on the field. I doubt they’ve even considered stage two – the crowds – and that’s where we come in.

It seems to me that the Federal and State governments aren’t going to even look at lifting social distancing restrictions at sports stadiums until they know that every possible precaution and safeguard is being taken to prevent another coronavirus outbreak. From their perspective that means a high take-up of the COVIDSafe app.

Once the majority of Australians have downloaded the app the major venues will be in a better position to push their case for a return to normal operations. Just like the restaurants and cafes that can now seat 10 customers and hopefully will have that number double and then triple in coming weeks, it probably won’t be open slather from day one.

Maybe we’ll see just 1000 fans sitting in the stands at first, then 2000, then 5000 and so on. It will be a gradual progression but the quicker it starts the quicker we will be back to cheering the Broncos on against the Cowboys or Storm in front of 50,000 at Suncorp Stadium. Downloading the app is the one way of Playing Our Part as individuals to make that dream a reality.

I reckon it’s something we should all do.

What do YOU reckon?