Crazy times! Unprecedented crazy times!
It's hard to believe what is happening in the world right now. As I put this column together, everything seems to be changing daily, hourly even. But what hasn't changed is my commitment to playing. There is a lot of talk around about what's right and wrong but my view is we need to keep playing.
We don't want to see anything happen to the game or the NRL and in my opinion, while we are able to, we need to be playing, irrespective of what other sports are doing around the world.
The NRL deserves a heap of credit. I reckon they are doing a great job with how they are managing the whole situation. What they are doing for us with all the precautionary measures in place has been fantastic and I can't praise them or our club enough because they are both doing everything possible to keep us safe.
All the boys at the Knights I've spoken to want to keep playing. I know it's really unfortunate for the fans not to be able to attend but if it's going to help the game survive, we need to be putting our hands up to get out there.
The NRL is saying it will be catastrophic for rugby league financially if it all falls over. There is so much money involved and so many livelihoods at stake here. There has been talk of players having to take pay cuts if the games don't go ahead but it runs a whole lot deeper than that.
There are people with mortgages, families and a whole heap of individuals who are employed right across the game who will be affected, not just the players. They will suffer as much hardship as anyone and in many cases more.
It's why as players, it is so important we do the right thing. We know what our responsibilities are. We are part of the whole deal here.
We have to make sure we are doing everything right to try and stay healthy by limiting our social contact and keeping hygienic. No-one has got the virus yet and until that happens, we just have to be vigilant and where possible, do the right thing to try and protect ourselves from being infected.
We have protocols in place to try and protect us as much as possible. When we have lunch in the club at our training base at Mayfield, we are not eating with the public anymore and it's about just being aware and mindful when mixing with other people.
We have had advice about just travelling from home to training and back home again and not going out anywhere. If we stick to that, it's going to help a lot and the boys are all committed to it. The last thing we want to do it miss out on any footy. It's what we do.
We are footy players and to go without for any length of time would be devastating for all of us.
Just to touch on our win over the Warriors last weekend, it was great to kick things off on a good note in front of a great home crowd considering the times we are living in and the conditions. To see so many of our fans there was pretty special. Keeping a side to nil, especially the Warriors with the sort of attacking players they've got, it's something we can hang our hats on.
It's put some confidence back into the group that what we have worked on all pre-season has really been worth it. Just seeing the boys faces when that Newcastle chant went up as we defended our line there late in the game - that was a great feeling.
So were all the smiles around the place afterwards. Adsy [coach Adam O'Brien] was happy. He was happy with our defence and as long as that's good, he'll be happy because he knows our attack with come. But we can't dwell on that too much because it was only one game so now we get ready for the Tigers.
It will be weird playing to an empty stadium at Leichhardt. A bit like playing park footy again I guess. Crowds can play a big part in lifting you as well in games but we know we are going to be representing the club and the town so as players and staff, we just have to stick together and bunker down and get on with our jobs.
As a group, we know we are representing Newcastle and I reckon we can draw a lot out of that. That will be a motivator for us.
The Tigers will be tough. I saw their win over the Dragons and they have a lot of strikepower. They won't have their fans there to lift them but they'll have their ways of motivating themselves and we'll have ours.
It's about getting our minds right with everything that is going on around us and getting our preparation and training spot on to make sure we turn up on Sunday ready to roll.
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