Melbourne Storm has had to relocate across the border to allow the NRL season to resume, but it is nothing compared to what Warriors players are doing.
Rugby league teams gathered for the first time in more than a month today for education sessions on the NRL's biosecurity protocols, which includes no contact at training for at least the first week.
The NRL has assigned a dedicated COVID-19 liaison officer to each club to oversee the implementation of the protocols.
Active training is set to resume for all clubs on Wednesday, with the Storm setting up camp in Albury, just over the border between Victoria and New South Wales.
Storm chief executive Dave Donaghy said making the "beautiful drive" from Melbourne was fairly easy considering the open borders and relative closeness players will still have to their families.
Meanwhile, most of the players from the Warriors have left their families behind in New Zealand, flying to their new base in Tamworth.
"New Zealand are a lot worse off than us. Their whole team has had to relocate from a different country, leaving behind family members," Donaghy said.
"That's a big sacrifice that club is making and the people at that club."
Storm players lined up outside their home ground in Melbourne on Monday before getting screened by medical staff on their way into the education session about the biosecurity measures being put in place.
Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V'landys praised the NRL clubs for taking part in the education sessions, describing the initiative as "a great day for rugby league".
"Every player participated in an education day, which explained our strict biosecurity protocols to ensure players understand what they can and cannot do," he said in a statement.
"Our protocols are substantially stricter than the current government measures and we wanted to ensure the first day was devoted to educating our players — they know the future of the game rests with them complying with our protocols."
Clubs will be provided with an additional education opportunity on Tuesday, before the resumption of training the following day.
Donaghy said he understood how important it was to take extra care, especially with Victoria still in a state of emergency for at least another week.
He said the club had made its peace with the fact that they would be playing away games for the first chunk of the season.
"The NRL's working through the composition of the fixture [but] given the uncertainty around Victoria at this stage, I think that would make sense," Donaghy said.
He said he expected the team would be "compensated by a few more home games at the back end of the season".
Donaghy said with some states and territories starting to ease restrictions, he was optimistic that at least some of those late-season home games would be played in front of fans.
