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Speaker 1: Now we know that it was reported over the weekend

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Speaker 1: that senior NRL NT games between the Palmeston Raiders and

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Speaker 1: the Northern Sharks had to be postponed while the NRL

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Speaker 1: investigates a potential breach of COVID restrictions. Now joining us

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Speaker 1: on the line to tell us more about the situation

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Speaker 1: is well, the CEO of NRL here in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: Nigel Roy. Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Nigel, Good morning Katie mate.

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Speaker 1: What happened with these two teams?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, the league was made aware of some activity

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Speaker 2: that was occurring late on Thursday night. So as a league,

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Speaker 2: we want to be seen as a good community citizen.

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Speaker 2: So as soon as we were aware of that activity,

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Speaker 2: we've got a process that we go through. So we

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Speaker 2: made the relevant authorities aware of that and they're conducting

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Speaker 2: their own investigations. But once we were made aware of it,

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Speaker 2: we commenced our own in turn investigations. Now I probably

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Speaker 2: can't well I can't go into the full details of

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Speaker 2: the matter as yet because we have to allow well,

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Speaker 2: there's a process that we have to adhere to and

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Speaker 2: we're conducted that very thorough process at the moment. But

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Speaker 2: what we did do well as a league. Just like

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Speaker 2: every other community sport out there, we want to see

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Speaker 2: our seasons continue on and the like, but we also

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Speaker 2: want to continue in a way that's compliant with the

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Speaker 2: Health Department's directives. So once Isaiah Rebbe was sort of

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Speaker 2: wanting to come out of lockdown and the like, but

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Speaker 2: the league to make sure that we're all consistent and

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Speaker 2: compliant with the Department's directives, we just gave the er

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Speaker 2: into issued a directive to all our affilly outer clubs

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Speaker 2: and associations within the lockdown areas that no activity was

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Speaker 2: to take place. So essentially the matter that we're investigating.

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Speaker 1: So essentially, Nigel, you know from what I can gather

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Speaker 1: that these clubs were holding training before those restrictions were

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Speaker 1: lifted and or that's certainly what you're investigating.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I can't go into the full details of it,

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Speaker 2: but the directives and the guidelines from the league were

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Speaker 2: pretty specific, and that's what we didn't want our affiliated

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Speaker 2: clubs to be doing, because yeah, we go somebody driving

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Speaker 2: past the street they see people gathering in paypall. That's

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Speaker 2: going to potentially cause alarm when everybody's doing the right thing,

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Speaker 2: keeping socially distanced and keeping this terrible COVID coronavirus at bay.

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Speaker 2: So as sporting organizations and representatives of our quick community,

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Speaker 2: we've got to be seen to be doing the right thing.

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Speaker 2: So that's why the league issued a blanket sort of

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Speaker 2: directive across all our clubs and associations.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that. You know, if there's rules for one,

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Speaker 1: they've got to be rules for everybody. Particularly then if

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Speaker 1: you're talking about the different clubs, everybody needs to be

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Speaker 1: adhering to the same rules and regulations. And you know,

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Speaker 1: we shouldn't have a situation where one club or however

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Speaker 1: many clubs are able to get away with something when

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Speaker 1: the others can't.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's not a matter of trying to get

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Speaker 2: away with something, it's a matter of doing the right thing. Okay.

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Speaker 2: You know, we're working where where within our commit broader

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Speaker 2: community we form, we're very much a solid part of

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Speaker 2: the fabric of that community. So we want to be

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Speaker 2: doing the right things and that's what we see ourselves.

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Speaker 2: We aspire to be those aspirants clubs and organizations that

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Speaker 2: people of the community want to be part of, and

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Speaker 2: that's where that's why we get disappointed when our clubs

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Speaker 2: and associations don't follow the guidelines of beliefe Nigel.

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Speaker 1: Was it too soon to maybe have those games back

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Speaker 1: on the weekend when the restrictions only lifted it sort

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Speaker 1: of at one o'clock on Friday, Should you have maybe

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Speaker 1: held off another week?

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Speaker 2: We had conversations with our affiliated clubs and associations prior

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Speaker 2: in the in the leak leading up to that. You know,

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Speaker 2: within the directives, individuals were able to continue on their

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Speaker 2: their physical preparations on their own and the like. So

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Speaker 2: that's what we, uh we said was permissible. But I

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Speaker 2: mean through a disrupted season, did the coronavirus and like

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Speaker 2: where we certainly came to keep things as normal as

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Speaker 2: possible and keep things on track, and you know, and

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Speaker 2: that's what we had to support, and the league was

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Speaker 2: supportive and making sure we wanted to continue on with

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Speaker 2: their games because you've got, yeah, you've got some passionate

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Speaker 2: individuals out there that that love their footing and they

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Speaker 2: just wanted to get back into the piece of the

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Speaker 2: action that it had to be had to adhere to

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Speaker 2: the guideline sat down by the relevant authority.

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Speaker 1: I mean, are you disappointed now that you're in a

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Speaker 1: situation where the police are having to look into this.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely, I don't deny that whenever we have instances

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Speaker 2: like this that we because we want we want to

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Speaker 2: work with our clubs. We want to grow our game together.

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Speaker 2: We have to work together. So whenever someone doesn't do

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Speaker 2: the right thing, we have our other clubs that are saying, well,

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Speaker 2: we're doing the right thing, but we want everybody to

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Speaker 2: do the right thing to ensure that it's a consistent,

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Speaker 2: fair playing field for everyone to be involved with.

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Speaker 1: Nigel, when are you anticipating this investigation is going to

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Speaker 1: be complete and you'll be able to sort of make

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Speaker 1: a decision in this space.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, as for our guidelines where we're working forward middle

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Speaker 2: of this week to be able to finalize the investigations

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Speaker 2: of the matter, and we'll reach out to everybody when

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Speaker 2: we've concluded those investigations.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if there is a breach found here, I'm like,

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Speaker 1: what's going to be what's going to be the punishment?

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, as I say, that's still to be determined.

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Speaker 2: But the penalties that are available to the league to

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Speaker 2: our financial finds against the clubs and those involved, the

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Speaker 2: possibility of deduction of competition points and the like, and

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Speaker 2: also suspension, so we've got a fairly broad sort of

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Speaker 2: ability to place sanctions against those involved.

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Speaker 1: Well, Nigel Roy from the NRL here in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: I appreciate your time this morning, and well we might

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Speaker 1: see how things progress throughout the week. We may end

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Speaker 1: up catching up with you again.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks for your time, Katie, thank you.

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Speaker 1: That's Nigel Roy there, who is the head of the

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Speaker 1: NRL here in the Northern Territory. And yeah, by the

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Speaker 1: sound as we know now the territory Police are looking

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Speaker 1: into this matter as well. It's pretty disappointing. I think

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Speaker 1: that everybody needs to make sure that they are you know,

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Speaker 1: that they're on the same level playing field here. There's

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Speaker 1: no doubt about it.