The Warriors have offered no guarantees the team will remain in Australia beyond this weekend, while the National Rugby League says they're prepared to continue the season without the Auckland side.
Cameron George Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Warriors have settled into a new training base at Kingscliff on the NSW North Coast, desperately awaiting a shipment of training gear, footballs and other essentials to begin preparations for the clash with the Raiders.
That game has been relocated from Eden park in Auckland to the Gold Coast because of the coronavirus enforced travel restrictions put in place by the New Zealand and Australian governments.
It appears the only way for the competition to continue with the warriors involved would be for them to base themselves in Australia, like the Phoenix have done in football's A-League.
However that would be hugely costly and would mean players would be away from their families for an unknown period.
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg says playing the competition with just 15 teams was among a handful of scenarios being considered to combat the impact of the virus.
This weekend's second round of matches will be played in empty stadiums while teams travelling interstate will be flown on charter flights instead of commercial flights.
"It's very possible to continue the competition if the Warriors want to go home," Greenberg said.
"Of course we want all 16 clubs playing in the competition, but that's a step that is a scenario and we'll only get to that after this weekend."
The Warriors chief executive Cameron George says the club wants to stay involved in the competition but concedes it could go on without them.
"We'd love the competition to continue in some way, shape or form whether it's a shortened version or existing version, or whatever it be."
"There's so many fans in Australia and New Zealand that love the game and it's important in so many peoples lives and if we can play our part in that it would be fantastic."
The NRL has no plans to follow the lead of other sports and compress the 2020 season into a shorter competition time period.
Greenberg says the players' workload is different to other sports and a fitting more games into a week is not viable.
"We play a very physical sport, a collision sport and turn around times are very important to us."
"Whilst we would like to play as many games as we can on the schedule we're trying to stick to the schedule as best we can and if we lose a club or a game along the way we'll look to make it up player workloads are equally important now as they have been previously."
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Warriors skipper Roger Tuivasa-Sheck refused to offer an opinion on whether the Premiership should continue during the pandemic, but said he expected the situation would reach its own conclusion sooner rather than later.
Tuivasa-Sheck said the players had overcome the initial shock of being told they must remain in Australia to play round two and praised the logistical work of his club to ensure his team felt minimal disruption.
As it stands the club has just 10 footballs with them, a backpack full of clothes each, limited training equipment, enough strapping tape to last until Thursday and no video cameras to film sessions.
Rival clubs have offered the Warriors everything from training gear to video cameras to assist them during their extended stay.
"Yeah we were in shock, we pretty much found out the news as soon as we walked off the park in Newcastle," Tuivasa-Sheck said.
"We've finally got a bit of clarity and just ready to move on now.
"We've been told a lot of times over last two days or 24 hours there is so much change so what we can do as a club and playing group is just focus on the day by day."
-RNZ/NRL
