Australian Rugby League Commission Chairman Peter V’landys says he’s “very confident” he can get rugby league up and running again on June 1 this year.

The 2020 NRL season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 23 on the back of the increased risk of the virus.

However with social distancing and self-isolation restrictions coming into fruition, the outbreak hasn’t been as bad as first feared.

V’Landys is optimistic rugby league could be back in June and told The Continuous Call Team they could even launch the return of the game with State of Origin.

“Absolutely, I’m very confident about it actually,” V’landys said.

“We’ve got the best can-do man in Wayne Pearce heading up this committee and he’s looking at all the options.

“You only have to look at the infection rate when we stopped playing, the infection rate was just on 23 percent, yesterday it was 3.9 percent and today it’s 4.3 percent.

“You’ve got to remember we’re only eight weeks away and if these figures continue to be that low, there’s less risk playing now then what there was when we were playing.

“With the introduction of all these social gathering provisions, the players will have less contact with the public.

“All going to plan, I’m very confident of a June 1st start.”

The NRL’s Innovation Committee is being led by Wayne Pearce and he’s joined by Trent Robinson, Don Furner, Clint Newton, Troy Grant, Andrew Abdo, Liz Deegan and Graham Annesley.

Pearce says the committee are considering all the options to bring the season back as soon as possible.

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