The NRL's immediate future is again under the microscope as Queensland's COVID outbreak worsens.
Having already shifted the entire competition to the south east corner of the sunshine state, Queensland was plunged into a three-day lockdown on Saturday, causing the NRL to delay Saturday and Sunday games by 24 hours.
Round 20 will be completed this evening.
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But now, the Queensland government have announced an extension of their lockdown until at least Sunday, with it to run until at least Sunday on the back of another 13 cases of community transmission.
While Australian Rugby League Commission Chairman Peter V'Landys and NRL CEO Andrew Abdo managed to have the remaining games played this weekend without crowds, the Queensland government had originally denied the right for any professional sport to be played in 11 impacted local government areas on Saturday when announcing the lockdown.
Players in the NRL's bubble are currently under the tightest biosecurity protocols in history, being tested every day and wearing masks at any point when they are not inside their hotel rooms, including during the pregame, halftime break and post game, while crowds have also been barred from attending matches for at least the duration of the lockdown.
Peter V'Landys was "confident" the lockdown would end on Tuesday when he spoke to Fox Sports on Saturday evening, however, with that now not the case, it's uncertain what the NRL will do.
"We believe this is a hiccup. Come Tuesday, if there are no more infections in Queensland, it'll be reopened and back to normal as it was this time last week," V'Landys said on Saturday.
The chairman of the commission said he had communications open with both the New South Wales and Victorian governments, although a complete relocation back to Sydney appears almost certainly off the table given the city has recorded north of 100 COVID cases per day for the last week, including 239 on Sunday.
Melbourne itself has only just got out of its own lockdown and is currently housing much of the AFL competition, making grounds, training facilities and hotels a potential difficulty to source if the competition went that way.
However, V'Landys was keeping his options open when asked on Saturday evening.
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"We have already had discussions with the Queensland government. If that did occur, we would be able to play with no crowds, but there are other options with New South Wales and Victoria," he said.
"Every option is on the table, and we have communications with the Victorian government. We want to play this round and hopefully we can do it tomorrow, but then we will deal with next week. I'm quietly confident."
The NRL are yet to make an official comment, however, with crowds likely to be banned from Queensland venues for the foreseeable future, the future of the NRL remains unclear.