At this moment in time it’s difficult to find anything positive to report on, be it rugby league or life in general..but let’s try!

First and foremost, our focus is rightly keeping ourselves and our families safe in these incredibly difficult time as the world battles Coronavirus.

There was one thing though over the weekend that was great to see. My good friend and fellow Oldhamer, Kevin Sinfield put himself through the pain barrier in aid of his former Rhinos teammate Rob Burrow, who I’m sure everyone is aware is suffering with Motor Neurone Disease.

Director of Rugby at Leeds, Sinfield had previous agreed to run in the Manchester Marathon, raising money and awareness for MND. Obviously due to the outbreak this was cancelled, so he decided to plot the 26.2 miles around Saddleworth where he lives.

As I said earlier, being an Oldham boy myself I know the area well..and it’s far from the flat course of Manchester! In fact only 20 per cent of the run was flat. So big congrats to Kev for that monumental effort in support of his good friend.

The RL community is renowned for supporting our own, and included in this family are title sponsors Betfred. At the start of the 2020 Super League season, bookie boss Fred Done vowed to double the £250 man of the match donation, to support both Rob and former Saint, Hull KR’s Mose Masoe who suffered a career-ending and life-changing spinal injury a few months back, with both receiving £250 per TV game. A fantastic gesture.

Like most sports, rugby league is entering into uncertain times

I can only repeat the comments made by RFL Chief Executive Officer Ralph Rimmer, who is defiant, stressing “League is a massively resilient sport” which has been demonstrated over the past 125 years.

He says we're in completely uncharted waters, but we will find a way through this.

The big challenge is what needs to be done to achieve this. As our counterparts ‘Down Under’ are themselves facing uncertainty after their NRL competition was temporarily suspended, there the obvious talk of player wage cuts or need for part-time players to make sure that clubs stay afloat.

As drastic as it sounds, I know that both competitions did the right thing in halting games in order to help the fight against this deadly virus. The health and well-being of all players, staff and fans must take priority.

I just want to pass on my best wishes to each and everyone of you all, let’s fight this together and come out of the other side, and look forward to the season resuming when safe to do so. Stay strong.