CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
It’s been a long and bumpy road back to live football in 2020, with the National Rugby League.
The outbreak of COVID-19 saw only two rounds of matches before the season was suspended on March 24, with fans and media commentators resigned to the fact that 2020 was going to have a blank spot on the trophy.
However, through perseverance and supreme negotiating, the game will resume tomorrow night with Brisbane Broncos hosting Parramatta Eels.
It is not lost on fans, players or the whingeing referees that the NRL season, and competition in general, has been saved from collapse by one man.
ARL Commissioner Peter V’Landys has risen to the occasion with the competence and determination not often seen in rugby league administrators.
So much so, that it could be argued that he has also paved the way for the AFL to return as well, after the bluebooded executives of Aussie Rules threw their hands up and waited for him to deliver his pandemic template.
Peter V’Landys has since become a cult icon throughout the rugby league community, as the golden Greek saves their beloved game of football in the same way as he saved racing during the equine virus.
Players and fans are this week paying tribute to their hero ‘Saint Peter’ – with one local Penrith newspaper mailing out posters of him to their readers.
Canberra Raiders winger Nick Cotric has even gone as far as getting a full-length back tattoo of the sports administrator, which he revealed in an instagram post last night.
“Was gonna wait til we won the 2020 premiership to show everyone this but couldn’t wait haha” wrote the 21-year-old Cotric in a caption last night.
“A fitting tribute to my hero. Saint Peter. We owe you everything but you ask for nothing. Thank you for saving rugba leg”
Tattoo artists around Australia have revealed that Cotric is not the only customer to ask for a Saint Peter tattoo in the last few weeks, as parlours around the country begin to re-open.
When asked for comment on Cotric’s touching tribute, Peter V’Landys said the tattoo makes it into his top three favourite Peter V’Landys tattoos of all time – with the number one spot going to Barry O’Farrell’s tramp stamp.
The Raiders play the Storm at 7:35pm this Saturday in Melbourne. Rugba Leag is back.
