THE Newcastle Knights will regroup today for the first time since the NRL season was suspended on March 23, although they will remain on restricted duties for at least another week.
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All 16 NRL clubs have been cleared to resume operations today, having spent the past six weeks maintaining strength and fitness in isolation during the pandemic shutdown.
Players will undergo an intensive biosecurity briefing today to educate them about the stringent protocols the NRL has introduced in a bid to minimise the chances of contracting coronavirus.
They will also no doubt be reminded about the likely consequences if they breach the rules, after the controversies last week involving Orign stars Latrell Mitchell, Josh Addo-Carr and Nathan Cleary, as well as fringe Newcastle first-grade Tyronne Roberts-Davis. All were fined after social-distancing infringements and many critics believe they should also have been suspended.
As of tomorrow, players can resume training but will be limited to groups of 10 and will be unable to participate in body contact.
Under Australian Institute of Sport guidelines, they will be allowed to start tackling and wrestling drills from next week. That will give all teams little more than two weeks of full-contact training - which would appear the bare minimum necessary - to prepare themselves for the planned competition resumption on May 28.
As seasoned Knights forward Tim Glasby told the Newcastle Herald last month: "If you were to go straight into games without enough contact training leading into it, there'd be a lot more injuries ... you'd need a bit of a run into it before you do start playing, and not just because of injuries, but also because I think the quality of the games wouldn't be as good.
"If you've got blokes that have barely touched a footy and you throw them into a game, it's likely to be scrappy, with balls on the ground and missed tackles because your timing is out. It wouldn't be the best game to watch, so hopefully they give us enough time to prepare properly."
The first couple of days of training are expected to involve testing to assess the fitness levels of all players.
The Knights, who opened their season with wins against the Warriors and Wests Tigers, should learn this week who they play in their remaining 18 games.
Knights coach Adam O'Brien will spend the next three weeks assessing his best options to replace hooker Jayden Brailey and back-rower Mitch Barnett, who both sustained long-term injuries in Newcastle's win against the Tigers.
Brailey is unlikely to play again this season after needing a knee reconstruction, while Barnett faces several months on the sidelines after neck surgery that involved a bone graft.
O'Brien is considering promoting Chris Randall for his NRL debut to replace Brailey.
Alternatively Connor Watson could move from the bench to the starting side. Sione Mata'utia, who missed the first two games with an ankle injury, would appear Barnett's likely replacement.
