Gould seeking Warriors, Titans loan players as COVID contingency
Phil Gould has asked the NRL for permission to approach the Warriors and Titans for a standby player should COVID-19 further ravage his Bulldogs squad.
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Canterbury supremo Phil Gould has asked the NRL for permission to approach the Warriors and Titans for a standby player should COVID-19 further ravage his undermanned squad.
Gould confirmed that four players - Jake Averillo, Brent Naden, Ava Seumanufagai and Reece Hoffman - have been ruled out after providing positive PCR tests. However, their ability to replace them has been compromised after the virus ran through the club, with Creedence Toia, Josh Stuckey and Ryan Gray among those to also test positive.
Gould was adamant the game against the Broncos would go ahead as planned at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night despite the club also dealing with a heavy injury toll that includes Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Matt Doorey, Braidon Burns, Jack Hetherington, Paul Alamoti and Chris Patola.
However, with the side only being able to fill 19 of the requisite 24 players for the encounter, the former premiership-winning coach spoke to the NRL about reinforcements should more players be scratched.
“The issue is, and I raised it with the league this morning … what if we get five or six more?” Gould said on
Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles with Gus podcast.
“What do we do? We might be the first, this might be the big test.
“What I said was: ‘Is there any chance, either from Titans or Warriors who are in the area - we can’t ask the Broncos because we’re playing the Broncos - but certainly from [the] Titans or Warriors, whether or not they could provide a loan player, who could stay at a different hotel, on standby just in case we need it?
“That’s an extreme case but, at the same token, the game is on Channel Nine. It’s our big game at 8pm. You would hate to get in there and not have the numbers to fill the squads.
“Hopefully that doesn’t happen, but you’ve got to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, as they say.”
Due to the injury and COVID setbacks, Gould has requested that the club’s lower-grade game against Mounties be postponed until Monday. However, there were no thoughts of delaying the NRL fixture.
“No, it’s not an option, we will be there to play,” he said.
“There will be some kids there very excited about getting an opportunity and probably some others on the bench hoping someone catches it, so they get a run … hopefully we get through the next couple of days without more positives.”
Gould himself recently had COVID and said he was still feeling the effects.
“I’m still having breathing difficulties now and I’ve still got a cough,” he said. “I test myself twice a day and I still test negative, but I don’t feel well with it.
“It’s in our club at the moment, and we have to protect the other teams we’re playing against and protect everyone else in the organisation. We’ve got to keep everyone isolated, and we have to travel isolated and stay isolated. We’ll see if we can get this game on for the fans on Friday night.
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