The NRL are said to be locked in high-end discussions with the Victorian government seeking exemptions for Melbourne Storm players ahead of State of Origin Game 3.
With Victoria currently requiring a mandatory 14-day quarantine period for any person who visits a hotspot area, the Storm players may have to be withdrawn from the game unless exemptions are granted.
While those exemptions exist for club games under the fly-in, fly-out model the NRL adopts, it may not be the same story for Origin, which is held on the back of a nine-day camp.
At this stage, according to a Fox Sports report, both states are due to hold their camps in hotspot areas. New South Wales are booked in to hold their camp on the Central Coast, while the Queensland camp will be on the Gold Coast.
New South Wales have used Josh Addo-Carr, while Queensland have had Cameron Munster, Christian Welch and Felise Kaufusi in their squad for the first two games.
Unless the NRL can have the exemption granted, the Storm would be forced to withdraw those players from the dead-rubber to end the Origin series. 14 days quarantine upon their return would mean they all miss two NRL games, and two weeks of training, making the situation simply untenable.
Brent Read broke the news on Triple M this afternoon.
"I donโt think it matters (if theyโre in a bubble) I think the issue is that theyโre going into that area," said Read.
โSo at the moment the Storm and the NRL are trying to work with the state government in Victoria to get exemptions so that their players can go into camp with the NSW and Queensland teams and then come back into Melbourne and resume training with the Storm.
โIโve got to say obviously Melbourne and the NRL are working together on this and theyโve generally had success with the state governments but itโs just another hurdle theyโve got to get over that COVIDโs put in front of the game.โ
State of Origin 3 is set to be held at Stadium Australia on Wednesday, July 14, although the venue is subject to change should Sydney's lockdown and crowd capacity restrictions fail to lift. It's anticipated an announcement will be made early this week by the NRL.
