NRL makes late change for grand final day as ‘pretty flawed’ sprint race dropped from plans

The NRL’s great grand final sprint has officially been declared a false start, with the race of the game’s fastest men held off for another year.

Head office had planned to pit the league’s quickest alongside each other on grand final day, with potential prize money available for the winners.

But AAP has been told that will now not take place, largely due to the number of players unavailable to run before Penrith’s Sunday night showdown against Melbourne.

The NRL is still hopeful the race can take place in the future on grand final day, with entrants from all 17 clubs.

A race between the game’s fastest has long been floated, with CEO Andrew Abdo even going as far as to suggest a rugby league Olympics in 2021.

Manly flyer Jason Saab was among those to push to be involved, but he suffered a season-ending ankle injury.

Josh Addo-Carr would also have been a potential entry, with Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow another of the game’s flyers.

Saab had also pushed for the race to be held on a different day, because players could be featuring in the main game and others away on holidays at season’s end.

“The way they’re going about it seems pretty flawed, to be honest,” Saab said in August.

“I just think it’s interesting to do it on grand final day because I’m sure there’s bound to be a couple of (fast) players that are going to be playing.

“How do you crown the fastest person when the fastest people aren’t running in it?”