'Kick in the belly': Gorden Tallis blasts Darius Boyd 'bulls**t'
Gorden Tallis has criticised Darius Boyd after the Broncos star said there is ‘no chance in hell’ he’d relocate to NSW to help the NRL season get restarted.
As the NRL ploughs through ideas to get the season up and running again on May 28, it has been proposed non-NSW teams will need to relocate to Sydney for the duration of the competition to bypass border restrictions between states.
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However, Boyd, who has a young family in Brisbane, says he would rather end his career early than live away from home for months at a time.
“No chance in hell I could do four months away from my family and that's something I wouldn't be OK with,” Boyd told the Seven Network this week.
“The game of rugby league is very important to a lot of people (but) at the end of the day your mental health and wellbeing is a lot more important.”
Gordon Tallis lashes Darius Boyd’s stance
But Boyd’s comments haven’t gone down well with club legend Tallis, who believes NRL players complaining about the prospect of temporarily moving should consider the bigger picture.
Tallis reckons Boyd and co need to realise how lucky they are to be in the position they’re in during the current climate.
“I want to call B.S on players and clubs at the moment,” Tallis told Triple M radio on Sunday.
“And whether it’s the Queensland clubs or Darius Boyd saying they don’t want to leave home.
“I think they’re lucky to do the job that they’re doing, they go out there and play rugby league. That’s a privilege I believe.
“I drove past the local Centrelink and the line was about 300 metres of people that have lost their jobs.
“And these guys have got an opportunity to go and earn money, and they’re saying that they don’t want to do it? I think it’s a bit of a kick in the belly for all Australians.”
After journalist Paul Kent asked Tallis to consider how leaving their families would affect players’ mental health, the former Queensland enforcer replied: “It’ll get a lot worse when there’s no money coming in.”
Controversy over plans to relocate Queensland teams
The NRL is hell bent on restarting the competition in seven weeks' time and it’s hoped border restrictions will be relaxed before then as the infection rate of coronavirus continues to drop in Australia.
North Queensland coach Paul Green said he has not spoken at length with his playing group about potentially relocating to Sydney, and doesn't intend to until there are concrete plans in the works.
“I think there's still a lot of unknowns so we don't really want to speculate too much on it until we can get some concrete ways forward,” he told Fox League on Tuesday night.
“Safety is the number one concern so whatever the comp looks like and whatever we have to do, as long as it's safe and abides by the rules, we're committed to trying to get the games back on.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would not be comfortable sending Queensland clubs Gold Coast, Brisbane and North Queensland to Sydney in order to avoid quarantine laws and ensure the NRL's resumption.
“I'm really concerned about my Queensland players going down to Sydney,” she said.
“All you need is one community transmission down in Sydney and the whole team could possibly have it.
“It would have to be very strict quarantine. I'd have to get health advice from my chief health officer.
“I don't want to put a spanner in the works here, but we're either going to listen to the health advice or we're not - I'm not making any apologies for that.”
with AAP
