Saturday’s Cowboys/Roosters kick off moved to 3pm

16 July 2021

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The Storm have relocated to Queensland for the third time in a year and will host the Newcastle Knights at Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday night after Melbourne’s latest looming lockdown forced the premiers to join the rest of the NRL in the Sunshine State.

Originally set down for AAMI Park, the clash between the Storm and Knights will now kick off at 7.35pm as the second game of a Saturday double-header on the Gold Coast.

The first match will be between the Raiders and Sharks at 5.35pm, moved from its original time slot of 3pm.

The North Queensland Cowboys will now host a Saturday afternoon game ahead of the V8 Supercars’ WD-40 Townsville SuperSprint race which will begin at the conclusion of the game.

The Cowboys’ clash with the Roosters at Queensland Country Bank Stadium will kick off at 3pm.

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said the revised schedule would be a win for South-East Queensland league fans and North Queensland sporting fans.

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“The Gold Coast now hosts a double-header on Saturday which gives fans the opportunity to see twice the action and that’s a good outcome for the game,’’ Abdo said.

“The Cowboys will now play at 3pm and I want to thank the V8 Supercars who are moving their race in Townsville back to ensure no overlap between the two events. This collaboration is a win for all sports fans.

“I want to thank all clubs for working together to achieve a schedule in the best interests of the competition, in particular the North Queensland Cowboys who agreed to re-schedule a genuine home game on very short notice.”

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The Storm players and their families were due to arrive in Brisbane on Thursday night and will be based at a separate hotel to the Brisbane hub, but will remain under Level 4 restrictions.

“It’s clear the risk to the competition is too great to keep the Storm in Melbourne, so we have made the decision to relocate the club to Brisbane,’’ Abdo said.

“The Storm have made significant sacrifices over the last two years, I want to thank the players and staff for everything they are doing to keep our competition going.”

Melbourne’s deteriorating COVID-19 situation in recent days had NRL and Storm officials on edge after the club was initially cleared to stay in their home city when the call was made to shift 12 rivals to South-East Queensland on Sunday.

The Storm announced on Thursday afternoon that the Victorian government’s anticipated announcement of a snap lockdown from 11:59pm had prompted yet another scramble for the club to beat COVID-19 shutdown orders.

The news was especially tough considering the game against Newcastle at AAMI Park was due to be the Storm’s first home game since April. 

“We are really disappointed we won’t be able to play in front of our members and fans again this weekend as we hoped to,” Storm CEO Justin Rodski said.

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“I know how much everyone connected with Storm – our players and staff through to our hugely loyal members and fans – was looking forward to it.

“There has been so much excitement and planning put into returning to AAMI Park but unfortunately the decision in the end was out of our hands.”

Just this week the club announced a new all-time membership record as well by ticking past 27,000 members, with acknowledgement of the achievement planned for Saturday’s homecoming.

“It’s not ideal but we’re sort of used to it now. We just adapt to the situation,” back-rower Chris Lewis told the NRL.com Preview Podcast.

“We’ve got a game of footy to play and then you deal with the rest of it around it. The club’s pretty good at setting things up and organising things around it.

“You sort of just get your footy boots, get there and get ready to play.”

Melbourne only returned to the Victorian capital from the Sunshine Coast two weeks ago, having based themselves out of Queensland for 46 days during the state’s last COVID-19 flare-up.  

The Storm’s Origin representatives Josh Addo-Carr, Dale Finucane, Cameron Munster, Christian Welch and Felise Kaufusi flew back to Melbourne from the Gold Coast on Thursday morning, only to be told they will now retrace the same path back north within 24 hours.

Melbourne operated out of the Sunshine Coast last season for five months en route to a famous 2020 title.

Saturday’s revised schedule will now be:

3pm: North Queensland Cowboys v Sydney Roosters at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.

5.30pm: Canberra Raiders v Cronulla Sutherland Sharks at Cbus Super Stadium.

7.35pm: Melbourne Storm v Newcastle Knights at Cbus Super Stadium